CVE-2018-8925 in Photo Station
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in admin/user.php in Synology Photo Station before 6.8.5-3471 and before 6.3-2975 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators via the (1) username, (2) password, (3) admin, (4) action, (5) uid, or (6) modify_admin parameter.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/22/2023
The CVE-2018-8925 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw in Synology Photo Station's administrative interface, specifically within the admin/user.php component. This vulnerability exists in versions prior to 6.8.5-3471 and 6.3-2975, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on Synology's photo management solutions. The flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate administrative functions by exploiting the lack of proper authentication verification mechanisms when processing requests to modify user accounts and administrative privileges.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the application's failure to validate the origin of requests made to the administrative user management endpoint. Attackers can construct malicious web pages or exploit existing vulnerabilities in other parts of the network to trigger administrative actions without proper authorization. The vulnerability specifically targets six critical parameters including username, password, admin, action, uid, and modify_admin, which when manipulated through forged requests can result in unauthorized account modifications, privilege escalation, or complete administrative control over the photo station service. This weakness directly maps to CWE-352, which defines Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities as those that allow attackers to perform actions with the privileges of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it provides attackers with the capability to completely compromise administrative access to the Synology Photo Station service. Once an attacker successfully exploits this CSRF vulnerability, they can modify user accounts, create new administrator accounts, change passwords, and potentially gain access to all photo data stored within the system. This presents a severe risk to organizations that store sensitive or confidential photographic content, as the vulnerability could lead to unauthorized data access, data manipulation, or even complete system compromise. The attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires no privileged access or credentials from the attacker, making it an attractive target for automated exploitation campaigns. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1548.002, which describes the abuse of application access tokens or administrative privileges to maintain persistent access to systems.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-8925 should focus on immediate patch application to the affected Synology Photo Station versions, as well as implementing additional security controls to protect against similar vulnerabilities. Organizations should ensure that all Synology devices are updated to versions 6.8.5-3471 or 6.3-2975, which contain the necessary CSRF protection mechanisms. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit exposure of administrative interfaces to trusted networks only. Additionally, organizations should deploy web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious requests targeting administrative endpoints. The implementation of proper CSRF tokens and origin validation checks should be enforced across all administrative interfaces to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in the future. Security monitoring should be enhanced to detect anomalous administrative activities that might indicate exploitation attempts, particularly around user account modifications and privilege changes.