CVE-2017-10678 in Piwigo
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Piwigo through 2.9.1 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of users for requests to delete permalinks via a crafted request.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/09/2022
The CVE-2017-10678 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in Piwigo version 2.9.1 and earlier, exposing web applications to unauthorized administrative actions. This vulnerability specifically targets the permalink deletion functionality within the Piwigo photo gallery system, which is widely used for managing and sharing digital media collections. The flaw enables remote attackers to exploit the lack of proper authentication verification mechanisms, allowing them to manipulate user sessions and execute unauthorized operations against the vulnerable system.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request origins and missing anti-CSRF tokens within the permalink deletion endpoints. When legitimate users navigate to malicious websites or click on crafted links, their browsers automatically submit requests to the Piwigo application without their knowledge or explicit consent. The vulnerability specifically affects the deletion functionality of permalinks, which are permanent URLs used to access specific images or albums within the gallery. Attackers can construct malicious requests that appear to originate from authenticated users, leveraging the trust relationship between the web application and the user's browser session to perform unauthorized deletions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data loss, as it can compromise the integrity and availability of entire photo galleries. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw can delete permalinks, potentially removing access to important images, disrupting gallery organization, or even causing cascading effects in dependent systems. The vulnerability affects not only individual user accounts but also impacts the overall gallery administration, potentially allowing attackers to gain unauthorized access to other administrative functions within the Piwigo platform. This creates a significant risk for organizations relying on Piwigo for content management, particularly those with public-facing galleries or collaborative environments where multiple users contribute content.
Security practitioners should consider this vulnerability in relation to CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery conditions in software applications. The flaw aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004, which covers valid accounts used for persistence and privilege escalation. Organizations should implement comprehensive mitigations including the immediate deployment of the vendor-provided patches, enabling proper CSRF token validation mechanisms, and implementing additional security controls such as Content Security Policy headers and request origin verification. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of input validation and authentication state management, as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten 2017 category A07: Identification and Authentication Failures, which emphasizes the need for robust session management and protection against CSRF attacks. Regular security assessments and application monitoring should be implemented to detect similar vulnerabilities in other components of the Piwigo platform or related web applications.