CVE-2016-2199 in Vulnerability Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in the Organizations and Remediation management page in Enterprise Manager in McAfee Vulnerability Manager (MVM) before 7.5.10 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that have unspecified impact via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/01/2018
The CVE-2016-2199 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery weakness discovered in McAfee Vulnerability Manager's Enterprise Manager component. This vulnerability specifically affects the Organizations and Remediation management pages within the MVM platform, creating a significant security risk that could be exploited by remote attackers to compromise administrator sessions. The flaw exists in versions prior to 7.5.10, indicating that organizations using older iterations of the vulnerability management solution were particularly at risk. The unspecified impact vectors suggest that attackers could potentially perform a wide range of malicious actions through these CSRF attacks, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous due to its broad potential consequences.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms in the affected web pages. When administrators interact with the Organizations and Remediation management interfaces, the application fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources within the authenticated session. This validation gap allows attackers to craft malicious requests that can be executed in the context of an authenticated administrator session without their knowledge or consent. The vulnerability operates through the exploitation of the browser's automatic handling of cookies and session information, where a maliciously crafted web page could trigger unauthorized administrative actions simply by having an administrator visit the page. This type of attack falls under the CWE-352 category, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities, and aligns with the ATT&CK technique T1566.002 for credential access through web application attacks.
The operational impact of CVE-2016-2199 extends beyond simple session hijacking, as administrators with elevated privileges could be tricked into performing critical operations such as modifying organization configurations, approving remediation actions, or altering security policies. Attackers could potentially manipulate vulnerability assessments, change user permissions, or even disable security controls within the MVM environment. The remote nature of the attack vector means that exploitation does not require physical access to the network or direct system interaction, making it particularly concerning for organizations that maintain strict network security controls. Organizations using McAfee Vulnerability Manager were essentially providing attackers with a backdoor that could be exploited from anywhere on the internet, potentially leading to complete compromise of the vulnerability management infrastructure and subsequent access to sensitive security data.
The remediation for this vulnerability requires immediate upgrading to McAfee Vulnerability Manager version 7.5.10 or later, which contains the necessary CSRF protection mechanisms. Organizations should also implement additional defensive measures such as monitoring for suspicious administrative activities and ensuring that all users are trained to recognize potential CSRF attack vectors. Network segmentation and web application firewalls can provide additional layers of protection, though the primary solution remains the application of the vendor-provided security patches. The vulnerability highlights the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security software and demonstrates how seemingly minor flaws in web application design can create substantial risks when combined with the elevated privileges of administrative accounts. Security teams should conduct thorough assessments of their vulnerability management processes to ensure that similar weaknesses do not exist in other components of their security infrastructure.