CVE-2016-3007 in Connections
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in IBM Connections 4.x through 4.5 CR5, 5.0 before CR4, and 5.5 before CR1 allows remote authenticated users to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/26/2019
The CVE-2016-3007 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting IBM Connections versions 4.x through 4.5 CR5, 5.0 before CR4, and 5.5 before CR1. This vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically targets the authentication mechanisms of the IBM Connections platform, which is widely used for enterprise social networking and collaboration services. The flaw enables remote authenticated attackers to exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its users, potentially leading to unauthorized actions being performed on behalf of legitimate users.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens or validation mechanisms within the application's request processing flow. When users are authenticated to IBM Connections, the application should validate that requests originate from legitimate sources and contain appropriate security tokens to prevent unauthorized operations. However, this vulnerability demonstrates a failure in implementing consistent CSRF protection measures across various endpoints and functionality within the platform. The flaw particularly affects authenticated sessions where users have legitimate access rights, making it particularly dangerous as attackers can leverage existing user permissions to perform actions such as creating or modifying content, accessing restricted data, or manipulating user accounts.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft or modification, as it can enable attackers to achieve persistent unauthorized access within enterprise environments. Organizations using IBM Connections for collaboration, document sharing, and social networking features face significant risks when this vulnerability exists, as attackers could potentially gain access to sensitive corporate information, manipulate shared resources, or establish footholds for further attacks. The vulnerability's scope covers multiple major versions of IBM Connections, indicating a systemic issue in the platform's security implementation that affects a substantial portion of deployed instances. This widespread impact makes the vulnerability particularly concerning for enterprise environments where IBM Connections serves as a critical collaboration platform.
Security practitioners should implement immediate mitigations including the deployment of web application firewalls with CSRF protection capabilities, enabling proper anti-CSRF token validation throughout the application, and ensuring all authenticated endpoints require robust session management and request verification. Organizations should also consider implementing additional monitoring and logging mechanisms to detect suspicious activities that may indicate CSRF attack attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery, and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for the initial access phase through credential exposure. Organizations should prioritize applying vendor patches and updates as soon as they become available, while also conducting thorough security assessments of their IBM Connections implementations to identify any additional vulnerabilities that may exist within the broader platform ecosystem.