CVE-2016-1151 in Office
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in Cybozu Office 9.9.0 through 10.3.0 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/30/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-1151 represents a critical cross-site request forgery weakness affecting Cybozu Office versions 9.9.0 through 10.3.0. This flaw resides within the web application's authentication mechanism and permits malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship between legitimate users and the application. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request origins and lack of proper anti-CSRF token implementation in the application's web interface. Attackers can craft malicious requests that appear to originate from authenticated users, thereby enabling unauthorized actions within the application's context. The impact extends beyond simple session hijacking as these vulnerabilities allow for arbitrary user authentication manipulation, potentially granting attackers full administrative privileges or access to sensitive corporate data. This type of vulnerability directly violates the principle of least privilege and undermines the fundamental security model of web applications.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability manifests through the absence of anti-CSRF tokens in critical application endpoints. When legitimate users interact with the Cybozu Office web interface, their authentication cookies are automatically included with every request, creating a trust relationship that malicious actors can exploit. The vulnerability occurs because the application fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources within the same domain, allowing attackers to construct malicious web pages or email attachments that trigger unauthorized actions when victims visit these pages. The flaw is particularly dangerous because it affects the authentication mechanism itself, meaning that successful exploitation could result in complete account compromise. According to CWE classification, this vulnerability maps to CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses. The vulnerability's impact is amplified by the fact that it affects multiple versions of the software, indicating a systemic design flaw rather than an isolated incident.
The operational impact of CVE-2016-1151 extends far beyond immediate unauthorized access, as it enables attackers to perform actions that could compromise entire corporate networks. Once authenticated, attackers can manipulate user accounts, access confidential documents, modify system configurations, and potentially escalate privileges to administrative levels. The vulnerability's remote exploitation capability means that attackers do not require physical access to the network or application infrastructure to execute successful attacks. This makes the vulnerability particularly attractive to threat actors who seek to maximize their impact with minimal resources. Organizations using affected Cybozu Office versions face significant risk of data breaches, unauthorized financial transactions, and potential regulatory compliance violations. The vulnerability also creates opportunities for attackers to establish persistent access through compromised user accounts, leading to extended periods of undetected infiltration.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2016-1151 must address both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements to prevent similar vulnerabilities. Organizations should immediately upgrade to patched versions of Cybozu Office where available, as this represents the most effective immediate solution. Additionally, implementing proper anti-CSRF token mechanisms, including the use of unique tokens for each user session and validating request origins, can prevent exploitation of similar vulnerabilities. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect anomalous authentication patterns and unauthorized access attempts. The implementation of web application firewalls can provide an additional layer of protection by filtering suspicious requests and detecting CSRF attack patterns. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1566, which covers Initial Access through spearphishing attachments or links, and T1078, which addresses valid accounts for persistence. Organizations should also implement comprehensive security awareness training to educate users about the dangers of visiting untrusted websites and opening suspicious email attachments. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities in other web applications within the organization's infrastructure.