CVE-2017-7446 in HelpDEZk
Summary
by MITRE
HelpDEZk 1.1.1 has CSRF in admin/home#/person/ with an impact of obtaining admin privileges.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/06/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-7446 affects HelpDEZk version 1.1.1 and represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw located within the administrative interface at the endpoint admin/home#/person/. This vulnerability enables attackers to execute unauthorized administrative actions without proper authentication, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The flaw exists in the web application's lack of proper anti-CSRF token validation mechanisms within the specific administrative user management functionality.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF protection measures in the targeted administrative endpoint. When administrators perform actions within the user management section of the application, the system fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions. This omission allows malicious actors to craft malicious web pages or emails containing crafted requests that, when executed by an authenticated administrator, perform unauthorized operations such as creating new administrative accounts, modifying existing user permissions, or deleting critical system components. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically targets the administrative user interface components that handle personal account management functions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to encompass complete system compromise and potential data breaches. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw can gain administrative control over the HelpDEZk application, enabling them to manipulate user accounts, access sensitive data, modify system configurations, and potentially establish persistent backdoors. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it requires no authentication credentials from the attacker, relying instead on the administrator's active session to execute malicious requests. This makes the attack vector highly effective and difficult to detect, as the malicious actions appear to originate from legitimate administrative sessions.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing robust anti-CSRF protection mechanisms throughout the application's administrative interface. The most effective approach involves implementing unique anti-CSRF tokens for each user session that are validated on every administrative request. These tokens should be generated server-side, transmitted to the client within forms or headers, and verified upon request submission. Additionally, implementing proper session management practices including secure session cookies with appropriate flags, session timeout mechanisms, and regular session invalidation procedures will strengthen overall security posture. Organizations should also consider implementing Content Security Policy headers and using the SameSite cookie attributes to provide additional protection against CSRF attacks. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352 which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers Valid Accounts and T1548 which covers Abuse of Cloud Credentials, demonstrating the broader impact on enterprise security operations and privilege escalation capabilities.