CVE-2018-7308 in DanWin
Summary
by MITRE
A CSRF issue was found in var/www/html/files.php in DanWin hosting through 2018-02-11 that allows arbitrary remote users to add/delete/modify any files in any hosting account.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/08/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-7308 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the DanWin hosting management interface that specifically affects the files.php component. This weakness resides in the web application's authentication and authorization mechanisms, where the system fails to properly validate the origin and intent of HTTP requests originating from authenticated users. The flaw allows attackers to manipulate file operations across hosting accounts without proper authorization, creating a severe privilege escalation scenario within the hosting environment.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper request validation tokens or origin verification mechanisms within the files.php script. When legitimate users perform file operations through the web interface, the application does not adequately verify that requests are genuinely initiated by the authenticated user or originate from the legitimate web application context. This absence of anti-CSRF measures enables malicious actors to craft specially crafted requests that, when executed by authenticated users, perform unauthorized file manipulations across any hosting account within the system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple data corruption or unauthorized access. Attackers can leverage this weakness to execute arbitrary file operations including creating new files, deleting existing files, modifying file contents, and potentially gaining persistent access to hosting environments. The scope of damage increases exponentially as the vulnerability allows manipulation of files across multiple accounts, potentially enabling attackers to compromise entire hosting platforms and affect numerous customers simultaneously. This capability directly violates fundamental security principles of least privilege and proper access control enforcement.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens for all file operation endpoints, implementation of proper request origin validation, and enforcement of strict session management controls. The fix should incorporate the use of unique, unpredictable tokens for each user session that must be validated on every state-changing request. Additionally, implementing Content Security Policy headers and proper referer validation can provide additional layers of protection. 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 privilege escalation through unauthorized access to system resources. The remediation process should also include comprehensive security testing to identify similar vulnerabilities in other components of the hosting platform and implementation of proper input validation and output encoding mechanisms to prevent similar issues in the future.