CVE-2018-11003 in YXcms
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in YXcms 1.4.7. Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in protected/apps/admin/controller/adminController.php allows remote attackers to delete administrator accounts via index.php?r=admin/admin/admindel.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/04/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-11003 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the YXcms content management system version 1.4.7. This CSRF vulnerability exists in the administrative controller component, specifically in the file protected/apps/admin/controller/adminController.php, where the application fails to properly validate request origins and implement adequate anti-CSRF mechanisms. The flaw manifests when an authenticated administrator performs actions through the administrative interface, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by remote attackers who craft malicious requests to delete administrator accounts.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of proper CSRF token validation within the administrative deletion endpoint. When an administrator navigates to the index.php?r=admin/admin/admindel URL, the application processes the deletion request without verifying that the request originated from a legitimate administrative session. This allows attackers to construct malicious web pages or exploit existing user sessions to execute unauthorized administrative actions, specifically account deletion. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and leverages the trust relationship between the web application and authenticated users, bypassing normal authentication checks that should prevent unauthorized modifications to administrative accounts.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to system security and integrity. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw can remove administrator accounts from the system, potentially leading to complete loss of administrative control, unauthorized access to sensitive data, and disruption of business operations. The impact extends beyond simple account deletion as it undermines the fundamental security model of the CMS, potentially allowing attackers to escalate privileges, modify content, or compromise the entire web application infrastructure. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it requires no authentication from the attacker beyond the ability to trick an authenticated administrator into visiting a malicious page or clicking on a crafted link.
Mitigation strategies for this CSRF vulnerability should include immediate implementation of anti-CSRF tokens within all administrative actions, proper validation of request origins through referer headers or custom headers, and enforcement of strict session management protocols. Organizations should implement the CWE-352 standard for CSRF protection by ensuring that all state-changing requests require verification tokens that are unique to each user session. The solution aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for Valid Accounts and T1566.001 for Phishing, as the vulnerability exploits legitimate user sessions to perform unauthorized actions. Additionally, regular security audits and input validation should be implemented to prevent similar flaws in other administrative endpoints, while application firewalls can provide additional layers of protection against malformed requests targeting administrative functions.