CVE-2015-6330 in Prime Collaboration Assurance
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance 10.5(1) and 10.6 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users, aka Bug ID CSCus62712.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/19/2018
The vulnerability described in CVE-2015-6330 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance versions 10.5(1) and 10.6. This security weakness resides in the web-based administrative interface of the collaboration assurance platform, which is designed to monitor and manage Cisco collaboration infrastructure including voice and video systems. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions without requiring valid credentials, exploiting the fundamental principle that legitimate requests can be forged by malicious actors who understand the application's authentication mechanisms.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the application's request processing. When users authenticate to the Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance interface, their session remains active and authenticated for subsequent requests. However, the system fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate authenticated users, instead relying on session cookies for authentication. This creates a scenario where an attacker can craft malicious web pages or emails containing embedded requests that, when clicked by an authenticated user, execute with the victim's privileges and session context.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple session hijacking, as it allows attackers to perform administrative actions within the targeted environment. An attacker could potentially modify system configurations, create new user accounts, access sensitive data, or even disrupt collaboration services that rely on the affected platform. The vulnerability affects organizations using Cisco's collaboration infrastructure, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where these systems manage critical communication networks. The attack vector requires minimal user interaction, often just clicking on a malicious link or visiting a compromised website, making it highly exploitable in social engineering campaigns.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in software applications. The flaw demonstrates poor input validation and insufficient session management practices that violate fundamental web security principles. From an adversarial perspective, this vulnerability maps to several ATT&CK techniques including initial access through malicious links and privilege escalation via session hijacking. The security implications are compounded by the fact that Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance serves as a management interface for critical collaboration infrastructure, making successful exploitation potentially devastating for business continuity and communication services. Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation through official Cisco security patches while implementing additional network-based controls to monitor for suspicious authentication activity and request patterns.
The exploitation of this CSRF vulnerability typically involves crafting malicious web content that automatically submits requests to the target system's administrative endpoints. Attackers may utilize techniques such as embedding iframe elements, hidden form submissions, or JavaScript-based request generation to trigger unauthorized actions. The lack of proper token validation means that any authenticated session can be leveraged by an attacker, regardless of whether the user is actively using the system or whether the session has expired. This makes the vulnerability particularly insidious as it can be exploited even when users believe they are operating securely within their normal workflow. The vulnerability underscores the critical importance of implementing robust anti-CSRF mechanisms, including the use of unique tokens for each request, proper session management, and consistent validation of request origins to prevent unauthorized operations within authenticated web applications.