CVE-2016-3004 in Connections
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in IBM Connections 4.0 through CR4, 4.5 through CR5, and 5.0 before CR4 allows remote authenticated users to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that modify the set of available applications.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/13/2019
The CVE-2016-3004 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting IBM Connections versions 4.0 through CR4, 4.5 through CR5, and 5.0 before CR4. This vulnerability operates within the context of web application security where authenticated users face potential hijacking of their sessions by malicious actors. The flaw specifically targets the application's inability to properly validate the origin of requests, allowing attackers to craft malicious requests that appear to originate from legitimate authenticated users. The vulnerability falls under CWE-352, which categorizes cross-site request forgery as a fundamental web application security weakness where the application fails to verify that requests come from the same origin as the user's current session.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from insufficient anti-CSRF token validation mechanisms within IBM Connections' authentication framework. When users are authenticated to the system, their session cookies and authentication tokens should be validated against each request to ensure they originate from legitimate sources. However, in vulnerable versions, the application does not adequately verify the authenticity of requests that modify application settings or user permissions. Attackers can exploit this by crafting malicious web pages or email attachments that, when visited by authenticated users, automatically submit requests to the IBM Connections server. These requests can modify the set of available applications, effectively allowing unauthorized privilege escalation or modification of user access rights.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple session hijacking to encompass potential privilege escalation and unauthorized modification of application configurations. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could modify the application access controls, potentially granting themselves or other malicious users elevated privileges within the IBM Connections environment. This could lead to unauthorized data access, modification of user profiles, or complete compromise of the application's user management functionality. The vulnerability affects the core authentication and authorization mechanisms of IBM Connections, making it particularly dangerous as it undermines the fundamental security assumptions of the platform. The impact is amplified because the affected versions include multiple major releases, indicating a widespread deployment across organizations that rely on IBM Connections for collaboration and social business functions.
Organizations should implement multiple layers of defense to mitigate this vulnerability. The primary recommendation involves implementing robust anti-CSRF token mechanisms that are generated per session and validated on each request modification. This approach aligns with the ATT&CK framework's mitigation strategies for web application attacks, specifically targeting techniques related to credential access and privilege escalation. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls should be configured to monitor for suspicious request patterns and validate request origins. Additionally, administrators should ensure that all affected IBM Connections installations are updated to versions that contain the appropriate CSRF token validation patches. Security awareness training for users can also help prevent exploitation through social engineering vectors that might be used to deliver malicious payloads to authenticated users. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and implementing proper input validation mechanisms to protect against common web application flaws that can lead to significant security breaches.