CVE-2016-4891 in SetucoCMS
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in SetucoCMS.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/29/2020
The CVE-2016-4891 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in SetucoCMS, a content management system that was widely used for web application deployment. This vulnerability resides in the application's failure to properly validate and authenticate cross-origin requests, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on this platform. The flaw allows malicious actors to execute unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users within the CMS environment, potentially leading to complete system compromise.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens or mechanisms within SetucoCMS's request processing pipeline. When users authenticate to the CMS, their session credentials are typically stored in cookies or other session management components. However, the system fails to verify that requests originate from legitimate sources within the same origin domain. This weakness enables attackers to craft malicious web pages or email attachments that, when visited by authenticated users, automatically submit requests to the vulnerable CMS without the user's knowledge or consent. The vulnerability operates at the application layer, specifically targeting the web application's session management and request validation processes.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft or modification, as it can enable attackers to perform administrative actions within the CMS environment. An attacker exploiting this vulnerability could potentially add new users, modify existing content, delete critical files, or even escalate privileges within the system. The consequences are particularly severe for organizations that rely heavily on SetucoCMS for content management, as successful exploitation could result in complete compromise of their web presence. This type of vulnerability also creates opportunities for attackers to establish persistent access through the creation of backdoor accounts or malicious content injection, which could remain undetected for extended periods.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens that are generated per user session and validated on each request. The implementation should follow established security standards such as those outlined in CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities in web applications. Additionally, the fix should incorporate proper origin validation checks and implement the principle of least privilege for all user sessions. Organizations should also consider implementing Content Security Policy headers and other web application firewall protections to provide additional layers of defense against similar attacks. The remediation process should include thorough testing of all authenticated endpoints to ensure that proper CSRF protection mechanisms are in place across the entire application surface. This vulnerability highlights the critical importance of implementing comprehensive security controls for web applications and demonstrates how seemingly minor implementation flaws can result in severe security consequences.