CVE-2017-12271 in SPA300
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability in Cisco SPA300 and SPA500 Series IP Phones could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute unwanted actions on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to a lack of cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by tricking the user of a web application into executing an adverse action. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCuz88421, CSCuz91356, CSCve56308.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/19/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-12271 affects Cisco SPA300 and SPA500 Series IP Phones, representing a critical security flaw that enables unauthenticated remote exploitation. This vulnerability stems from insufficient cross-site request forgery protection mechanisms within the affected telephony devices, creating a significant attack surface that could be leveraged by malicious actors without requiring any authentication credentials. The flaw exists within the web-based management interface of these IP phones, which are widely deployed in enterprise environments for voice communications and conferencing services.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability demonstrates a classic CSRF weakness where the affected devices fail to validate the origin of HTTP requests submitted through their web interfaces. When an authenticated user interacts with the phone's web management portal, an attacker can craft malicious web pages or links that, when clicked by the user, trigger unintended administrative actions on the device. This occurs because the device does not implement proper anti-CSRF tokens or origin validation checks that would normally prevent requests originating from external domains from being processed. The vulnerability is particularly concerning given that these IP phones often serve as critical infrastructure components within corporate networks, providing voice services and potentially serving as entry points for broader network compromise.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it can enable attackers to execute a wide range of malicious actions on affected devices including but not limited to configuration changes, firmware updates, call forwarding modifications, and potentially gaining persistent access to the network. Attackers could exploit this weakness to redirect calls, disable services, or establish backdoor access points that could facilitate further network infiltration. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors can target these devices from anywhere on the internet without requiring physical access or network proximity, making the attack vector particularly dangerous for organizations that deploy these phones in distributed or remote work environments.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to isolate these devices from critical network segments, deployment of web application firewalls to monitor and filter malicious requests, and implementation of strict access controls that limit web interface access to trusted network segments only. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery, and represents a clear violation of the principle of least privilege and secure coding practices. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving initial access through web application exploitation and privilege escalation through administrative interface manipulation, potentially enabling lateral movement and persistent access within targeted networks. Cisco has addressed this vulnerability through security updates and firmware releases that implement proper CSRF protection mechanisms, emphasizing the importance of maintaining current security patches for network infrastructure devices.