CVE-2015-7612 in Vulnerability Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in the Organizations page in Enterprise Manager in McAfee Vulnerability Manager (MVM) 7.5.9 and earlier allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that have unspecified impact via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/20/2022
The CVE-2015-7612 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in McAfee Vulnerability Manager version 7.5.9 and earlier releases. This vulnerability specifically targets the Organizations page within the Enterprise Manager component of the security platform, creating a significant risk for organizations relying on this vulnerability management solution. The flaw allows remote attackers to exploit the authentication mechanisms of administrators through unspecified attack vectors, potentially enabling unauthorized actions within the system.
The technical nature of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF protection mechanisms in the affected web interface. When administrators navigate to the Organizations page in the Enterprise Manager, the application fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources within the authenticated session. This weakness enables attackers to craft malicious requests that can be executed on behalf of authenticated administrators without their knowledge or consent. The vulnerability operates at the web application layer, leveraging the trust relationship between the browser and the vulnerable application to bypass authentication controls.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial for organizations using McAfee Vulnerability Manager 7.5.9 or earlier versions. Attackers who successfully exploit this flaw could potentially perform administrative actions such as creating new user accounts, modifying existing organizational configurations, altering security policies, or accessing sensitive vulnerability data. The unspecified impact mentioned in the CVE description suggests that the scope of possible malicious activities could be extensive, potentially including privilege escalation, data manipulation, or complete system compromise depending on the specific actions that can be performed through the Organizations page. This vulnerability directly undermines the integrity and confidentiality of the vulnerability management processes.
From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw demonstrates poor input validation and insufficient session management practices that are commonly exploited in web application attacks. Organizations should consider this vulnerability in their threat modeling and incident response planning, particularly given that it affects the core administrative interface of a vulnerability management system. The attack vector requires minimal privileges and can be executed remotely, making it particularly dangerous in environments where administrators have elevated access rights.
The recommended mitigation strategy involves immediate patching of affected McAfee Vulnerability Manager installations to versions that address this CSRF vulnerability. Organizations should also implement additional defensive measures such as ensuring that all administrative interfaces are properly protected with anti-CSRF tokens, implementing proper session management controls, and monitoring for suspicious administrative activities. Network segmentation and access controls should be reviewed to limit exposure of the vulnerable interface. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under the T1566 technique for Phishing and T1078 for Valid Accounts, as attackers would likely need to establish initial access through social engineering or credential compromise before exploiting this specific CSRF weakness.