CVE-2018-16952 in WebCenter Interaction
Summary
by MITRE
The Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal 10.3.3 does not implement protection against Cross-site Request Forgery in its design. The impact is sensitive actions in the portal (such as changing a portal user's password).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/24/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-16952 represents a critical security flaw in Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal version 10.3.3 that fundamentally undermines the application's ability to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks. This weakness stems from the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms within the portal's architecture, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users. The vulnerability specifically affects the portal's design philosophy, which fails to implement essential anti-CSRF controls that should be inherent to any modern web application handling sensitive user operations.
The technical implementation flaw manifests as the complete omission of CSRF tokens or similar protective measures in the portal's request processing pipeline. When users authenticate to the WebCenter Interaction Portal, they establish sessions that can be manipulated by attackers through malicious web pages or crafted requests. The portal's architecture does not validate the origin of requests or enforce token-based verification that would normally prevent unauthorized commands from being executed. This design oversight allows attackers to construct malicious requests that leverage the authenticated session of legitimate users, effectively bypassing the portal's authentication mechanisms. The vulnerability directly impacts the portal's security model by enabling attackers to perform sensitive operations without proper authorization, particularly targeting user account management functions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to encompass full account compromise and potential data manipulation within the portal environment. Attackers can exploit this weakness to change user passwords, modify account settings, or perform other sensitive administrative actions that would normally require explicit user consent and proper authentication. The implications are particularly severe given that the portal handles sensitive portal user operations, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to gain unauthorized access to privileged accounts or disrupt portal services. This vulnerability essentially allows for session hijacking and unauthorized account takeovers that can persist as long as the victim remains authenticated to the portal.
Organizations utilizing Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal 10.3.3 face significant security risks from this CSRF vulnerability, as it can be exploited through various attack vectors including phishing campaigns, malicious websites, or compromised third-party applications that embed requests to the vulnerable portal. The attack surface is particularly concerning because the portal's user base may include administrators or users with elevated privileges, making successful exploitation potentially catastrophic. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery, and represents a clear violation of the principle of least privilege and secure design practices. The lack of CSRF protection in the portal's design violates fundamental security requirements outlined in various security frameworks and standards, including those referenced in the ATT&CK framework under the privilege escalation and credential access tactics.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-16952 must include immediate implementation of CSRF token validation mechanisms within the portal's request handling process, proper session management controls, and thorough security configuration reviews. Organizations should implement anti-CSRF tokens that are generated per user session and validated for each sensitive operation, ensuring that requests originate from legitimate portal pages rather than external sources. The portal should also enforce strict referer header validation and implement proper origin checking mechanisms to prevent unauthorized requests from being processed. Additionally, security patches from Oracle should be applied immediately to address the underlying vulnerability, and comprehensive security testing should be performed to verify that the CSRF protection mechanisms are properly implemented and functioning. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify and remediate similar design flaws that may exist in other components of the portal infrastructure.