CVE-2018-10189 in Mautic
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in Mautic 1.x and 2.x before 2.13.0. It is possible to systematically emulate tracking cookies per contact due to tracking the contact by their auto-incremented ID. Thus, a third party can manipulate the cookie value with +1 to systematically assume being tracked as each contact in Mautic. It is then possible to retrieve information about the contact through forms that have progressive profiling enabled.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/28/2023
This vulnerability exists in Mautic versions 1.x and 2.x prior to 2.13.0 and represents a significant tracking cookie manipulation issue that enables systematic contact impersonation. The flaw stems from the application's tracking mechanism which relies on auto-incremented contact IDs stored in cookies, creating a predictable sequence that malicious actors can exploit. This vulnerability falls under CWE-284 Access Control Issues and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 Valid Accounts, as it allows unauthorized parties to assume the identity of legitimate contacts within the system. The core technical flaw lies in the predictable nature of the tracking cookie values, where each contact is assigned a sequential numeric identifier that increments with each new contact creation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial as it enables attackers to systematically enumerate through all contacts in the Mautic database by simply incrementing the cookie value by one. This manipulation capability allows threat actors to assume the identity of any contact in the system, effectively bypassing normal access controls and authentication mechanisms. When combined with forms featuring progressive profiling, attackers can retrieve sensitive contact information including personal details, behavioral data, and other profile attributes that would normally be restricted to authorized personnel. The vulnerability creates a persistent reconnaissance and data exfiltration vector that can be exploited over extended periods without detection.
The exploitation of this vulnerability demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the application's session management and tracking implementation, where predictable identifiers are used for user tracking rather than secure, randomized tokens. This issue is particularly concerning in marketing automation platforms like Mautic where contact data often contains sensitive personal information and behavioral analytics. Organizations using affected versions of Mautic face significant risks including unauthorized data access, privacy violations, and potential compliance breaches under regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. The vulnerability represents a classic case of inadequate entropy in tracking mechanisms, where the predictable nature of auto-incremented identifiers creates a backdoor for systematic contact enumeration.
The recommended mitigation involves upgrading to Mautic version 2.13.0 or later, which implements proper tracking mechanisms using randomized identifiers instead of sequential numeric values. Security teams should also implement additional monitoring for unusual cookie manipulation patterns and consider implementing rate limiting on tracking requests to detect potential enumeration attempts. Organizations should conduct thorough security assessments of their Mautic installations to identify any other predictable identifiers that might exist within the application's tracking or session management components. The fix addresses the root cause by eliminating the predictable sequence that enabled systematic contact impersonation while maintaining the core functionality of the tracking system.