CVE-2016-10738 in Zenbership
Summary
by MITRE
Zenbership v107 has CSRF via admin/cp-functions/event-add.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/01/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-10738 affects Zenbership version 107 and represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the administrative control panel. This vulnerability exists in the admin/cp-functions/event-add.php endpoint, which processes event creation functionality within the web application's administrative interface. The flaw allows authenticated administrators to be tricked into executing unintended actions without their knowledge or consent, making it particularly dangerous as it targets privileged users with elevated system access.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens or validation mechanisms in the event addition functionality. When an administrator visits a malicious website or clicks on a crafted link while authenticated to the Zenbership system, the application fails to verify that the request originated from the legitimate administrative interface. This weakness enables attackers to construct malicious requests that leverage the administrator's existing session to perform unauthorized actions such as creating events, potentially leading to data manipulation, service disruption, or privilege escalation within the application's administrative environment. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery issues in web applications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data integrity concerns, as it can enable attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive administrative functions. An attacker could exploit this flaw to add malicious events, potentially disrupting business operations or creating backdoors within the system. The vulnerability affects the application's authentication and authorization mechanisms, undermining the security posture of the entire Zenbership platform. Organizations using this version of the software face risks including unauthorized administrative actions, data corruption, service availability issues, and potential information disclosure through manipulated event data.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate implementation of anti-CSRF token mechanisms throughout the administrative interface, particularly in the event-add.php endpoint. The solution involves generating unique, unpredictable tokens for each administrative session and validating these tokens on every state-changing request. Organizations should also implement proper session management practices, including secure cookie attributes and session timeout mechanisms. Additionally, the application should be upgraded to a patched version of Zenbership that addresses this specific vulnerability, as recommended by the vendor's security advisories. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls and regular security assessments can provide additional layers of defense against exploitation attempts. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing robust anti-CSRF protections in all web applications, particularly those with administrative interfaces, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential harvesting through social engineering approaches.