CVE-2016-10529 in Droppy
Summary
by MITRE
Droppy versions <3.5.0 does not perform any verification for cross-domain websocket requests. An attacker is able to make a specially crafted page that can send requests as the context of the currently logged in user. For example this means the malicious user could add a new admin account under his control and delete others.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/10/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-10529 affects Droppy versions prior to 3.5.0 and represents a critical cross-site request forgery (CSRF) issue within the websocket communication layer. This flaw stems from the application's complete absence of cross-domain websocket request verification mechanisms, creating a fundamental security gap that allows malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its websocket endpoints. The vulnerability resides in the websocket protocol implementation where the application fails to validate the origin of websocket connections, enabling unauthorized parties to establish malicious websocket sessions that operate under the privileges of legitimate users.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through the manipulation of websocket connections, specifically targeting the lack of origin validation and request authentication. When a user accesses the Droppy application with an active session, their browser maintains a websocket connection that remains authenticated. An attacker can craft a malicious webpage that establishes a websocket connection to the vulnerable Droppy instance, leveraging the existing authenticated session to execute commands on behalf of the logged-in user. This represents a classic case of session hijacking through websocket protocol abuse, where the application's failure to implement proper CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) validation allows cross-domain requests to proceed without proper authorization checks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple data theft, encompassing complete administrative control over affected systems. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can perform arbitrary actions within the application's context, including but not limited to creating new administrative accounts, modifying existing user permissions, deleting files, and accessing sensitive data. The implications are particularly severe because websocket connections often maintain elevated privileges and can bypass traditional web application security controls. This vulnerability effectively allows an attacker to escalate privileges and assume full administrative control of the Droppy instance, as demonstrated by the ability to add new admin accounts under their control.
The root cause of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-346, which addresses "Origin Validation Error," and represents a failure to implement proper origin validation mechanisms in websocket communication. This flaw also maps to ATT&CK technique T1078.004, which covers "Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts," as the exploitation leverages legitimate user sessions to perform unauthorized administrative actions. The vulnerability demonstrates poor input validation and insufficient session management practices, where the application assumes all websocket connections are legitimate without proper verification of the requesting domain or user context. Organizations using affected versions of Droppy should immediately implement patch management procedures to upgrade to version 3.5.0 or later, which includes proper websocket origin validation and request verification mechanisms. Additional mitigations should include network-level restrictions on websocket traffic, implementation of proper CORS policies, and monitoring for unauthorized websocket connections to prevent exploitation of this vulnerability.