CVE-2017-15883 in Sitefinity
Summary
by MITRE
Sitefinity 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, and 10.x allow remote attackers to bypass authentication and consequently cause a denial of service on load balanced sites or gain privileges via vectors related to weak cryptography.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/20/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-15883 affects Sitefinity content management systems across multiple versions including 5.1 through 10.x, presenting a critical security flaw that enables remote attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms. This weakness stems from the implementation of weak cryptographic practices within the authentication process, specifically in how session tokens and authentication cookies are generated and validated. The flaw allows adversaries to manipulate authentication flows and potentially gain unauthorized access to administrative functions or cause service disruption on load balanced deployments where session affinity might be compromised.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the use of insufficiently random or predictable cryptographic algorithms in the generation of authentication tokens, which can be reverse-engineered or brute-forced by attackers. This weakness directly relates to CWE-327, which addresses the use of weak cryptography, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1212, which focuses on exploitation of software vulnerabilities involving cryptographic weaknesses. The impact is particularly severe in load balanced environments where session management across multiple servers becomes vulnerable to manipulation, allowing attackers to establish persistent unauthorized access or disrupt service availability through session hijacking attacks.
The operational consequences of this vulnerability extend beyond simple privilege escalation, as it can lead to complete system compromise when combined with other attack vectors. Attackers can leverage this weakness to perform unauthorized administrative actions, modify content, access sensitive data, or create backdoor access points within the Sitefinity environment. The vulnerability particularly affects organizations using load balancing configurations where session persistence mechanisms are not properly secured against cryptographic manipulation. This creates a cascading effect where a single compromised session token can potentially affect multiple servers in the load balanced architecture, amplifying the denial of service impact and increasing the attack surface for privilege escalation attempts.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing strong cryptographic practices including the use of cryptographically secure random number generators for session token creation, proper implementation of secure hash algorithms, and regular updates to Sitefinity versions that address this specific vulnerability. Organizations should also consider implementing additional security controls such as multi-factor authentication, network segmentation, and monitoring for unusual authentication patterns. The remediation process involves upgrading to patched versions of Sitefinity that address the weak cryptography implementation and ensuring that all cryptographic components follow industry standards such as those specified in NIST SP 800-131A for cryptographic algorithm selection and implementation. Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough security assessments to identify any other potential cryptographic weaknesses within their Sitefinity deployments and implement proper session management practices that are resilient to the types of attacks facilitated by this vulnerability.