CVE-2016-10206 in ZoneMinder
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Zoneminder 1.30 and earlier allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of users for requests that change passwords and possibly have unspecified other impact as demonstrated by a crafted user action request to index.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/03/2020
The CVE-2016-10206 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in ZoneMinder versions 1.30 and earlier, fundamentally compromising the security integrity of the video surveillance management system. This vulnerability exists within the application's authentication mechanisms, allowing remote attackers to exploit the system's trust relationship with legitimate users. The flaw specifically targets the password change functionality and potentially extends to other administrative operations within the ZoneMinder interface, making it a significant threat to system security and user privacy.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the ZoneMinder application's request processing flow. When users interact with the system through the index.php endpoint, the application fails to verify the authenticity of requests originating from legitimate user sessions versus maliciously crafted requests. This omission creates a condition where an attacker can construct a malicious request that, when executed by an authenticated user, performs unauthorized actions without the user's knowledge or consent. The vulnerability operates by leveraging the user's existing authenticated session to execute operations that should require explicit user confirmation or additional authentication factors.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple password changes to potentially encompass a wide range of administrative functions within the ZoneMinder system. Attackers could exploit this flaw to modify user permissions, alter system configurations, access restricted surveillance feeds, or even disable security features. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors can leverage social engineering techniques or embed malicious links within compromised websites to target unsuspecting administrators. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations relying on ZoneMinder for security monitoring, as successful exploitation could lead to complete system compromise and unauthorized access to sensitive surveillance data.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including updating to ZoneMinder versions 1.31 or later where the CSRF vulnerability has been addressed through proper token validation mechanisms. The fix typically involves implementing anti-CSRF tokens that are generated for each user session and validated on every state-changing request. Security measures should also include web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious request patterns, implementation of Content Security Policy headers to prevent unauthorized script execution, and regular security auditing of web applications. Additionally, administrators should enforce multi-factor authentication where possible and implement network segmentation to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation attempts.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in software applications, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for the initial access phase through malicious web content. The remediation approach should follow industry best practices outlined in NIST SP 800-53 and ISO/IEC 27001 standards for web application security controls. Organizations must also consider implementing automated vulnerability scanning tools that can detect similar CSRF vulnerabilities in their web applications and establish security awareness training programs to educate users about the risks of clicking suspicious links or visiting compromised websites.