CVE-2016-1174 in Menubook Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Menubook plugin before 0.9.3 for baserCMS allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/04/2019
The CVE-2016-1174 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Menubook plugin for baserCMS versions prior to 0.9.3. This vulnerability resides in the web application's authentication mechanism and specifically targets the administrative interface of the content management system. The flaw enables remote attackers to exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its authenticated administrators, potentially allowing unauthorized actions to be performed on behalf of legitimate users with administrative privileges.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the Menubook plugin's request processing logic. When administrators interact with the baserCMS administrative panel, the application should validate that requests originate from legitimate sources and contain appropriate authentication tokens. However, the vulnerable plugin fails to implement adequate token verification mechanisms, making it susceptible to attacks where malicious actors can craft specially crafted requests that appear to come from authenticated administrators. This flaw aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities in web applications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it directly compromises the security of administrative accounts within baserCMS installations. An attacker could potentially execute administrative actions such as creating new user accounts, modifying existing content, deleting database entries, or altering system configurations without requiring valid credentials. The vulnerability affects the principle of least privilege and undermines the integrity of the authentication system, potentially leading to complete system compromise. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to establish persistent access, escalate privileges, or cause significant data loss and system disruption.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately upgrade to baserCMS version 0.9.3 or later, which includes proper CSRF token implementation and validation mechanisms. System administrators should also implement additional security measures such as monitoring for suspicious administrative activities, reviewing access logs for unauthorized actions, and ensuring that all plugins and themes are kept up to date with security patches. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing of the patched environment to ensure that legitimate administrative functions continue to operate correctly while the CSRF protection mechanisms are properly enforced. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing proper anti-CSRF measures in web applications and highlights the need for regular security assessments of third-party plugins and components.