CVE-2018-11371 in SkyCaiji
Summary
by MITRE
SkyCaiji 1.2 allows CSRF to add an Administrator user.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/08/2020
The vulnerability CVE-2018-11371 represents a cross-site request forgery flaw in SkyCaiji version 1.2 that enables unauthorized users to escalate their privileges by adding administrator accounts. This issue falls under the CWE-352 category of Cross-Site Request Forgery, which occurs when a web application fails to validate the origin of requests, allowing malicious actors to perform actions on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent. The vulnerability specifically affects the user management functionality of the SkyCaiji content collection and management platform, which is commonly used for automated data harvesting and website content aggregation.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request sources within the application's administrative user creation endpoint. When an authenticated user visits a malicious website or clicks on a crafted link, the attacker can trigger a request to the SkyCaiji application that creates a new administrator account with predetermined credentials. The application does not properly verify the referer header or implement anti-CSRF tokens, making it possible for attackers to leverage legitimate user sessions to execute privileged operations. This flaw operates at the web application layer and exploits the trust relationship between the browser and the target application.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it provides attackers with persistent administrative access to the SkyCaiji system. Once an attacker successfully executes the CSRF attack, they gain full control over the application's functionality, including access to all collected data, configuration settings, and the ability to modify or delete content. The vulnerability can be exploited through various means including phishing campaigns, compromised websites, or social engineering attacks where users are tricked into visiting malicious sites. The persistence of administrative access allows attackers to maintain control over the system even after the initial exploitation attempt, making this a particularly dangerous vulnerability for organizations relying on SkyCaiji for content management and data collection.
Organizations should immediately implement multiple layers of defense to mitigate this vulnerability. The primary mitigation involves adding anti-CSRF tokens to all state-changing requests within the application, ensuring that each request includes a unique, unpredictable value that is validated server-side. Additionally, implementing proper referer header validation and using the SameSite cookie attributes can significantly reduce the attack surface. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1078 for Valid Accounts and T1548.002 for Abuse of Cloud Compute Infrastructure, as attackers can leverage the compromised administrative access to maintain persistence and potentially expand their operations. System administrators should also conduct regular security audits of web applications, implement web application firewalls, and ensure all users are educated about the risks of visiting untrusted websites or clicking suspicious links. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of input validation and request origin verification in preventing privilege escalation attacks that can compromise entire web applications.