CVE-2019-10888 in ukcms
Summary
by MITRE
A CSRF Issue that can add an admin user was discovered in UKcms v1.1.10 via admin.php/admin/role/add.html.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/27/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-10888 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within UKcms version 1.1.10 that allows unauthenticated attackers to escalate privileges by adding administrative user accounts. This issue specifically affects the administrative interface at admin.php/admin/role/add.html, where the application fails to implement proper anti-CSRF mechanisms. The flaw resides in the web application's failure to validate the origin of requests made to sensitive administrative endpoints, creating a pathway for malicious actors to leverage social engineering or victim exploitation techniques to execute unauthorized administrative actions. According to CWE-352, this vulnerability maps directly to Cross-Site Request Forgery, a well-documented weakness where applications fail to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources within the same origin domain.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens in the administrative user addition form, combined with the application's lack of proper session validation mechanisms. When an administrator visits the vulnerable page, the application does not require a valid CSRF token to be submitted alongside the request to create a new administrative user. This omission allows attackers to craft malicious HTML pages or exploit existing vulnerabilities in web applications to trick administrators into submitting requests that add new administrative accounts without their knowledge or consent. The attack vector typically involves sending a specially crafted request that includes the necessary parameters to create an administrative user account, effectively granting the attacker elevated privileges within the system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it fundamentally compromises the security model of the UKcms application. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can establish persistent administrative access, potentially leading to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, or the deployment of further malicious tools within the affected environment. The vulnerability affects not only the immediate administrative capabilities but also undermines the trust model that the application relies upon for user authentication and authorization. According to ATT&CK framework technique T1078, this vulnerability enables adversary access to legitimate credentials and elevated privileges, while T1548.001 covers the abuse of legitimate account privileges to maintain access. The risk is particularly elevated in environments where administrators frequently visit potentially compromised websites or where the application is deployed in less secure network environments.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2019-10888 should include immediate implementation of anti-CSRF token validation mechanisms across all administrative endpoints, particularly those that modify user permissions or create new administrative accounts. Organizations should ensure that all sensitive administrative operations require valid CSRF tokens that are generated per session and validated on the server side. Additionally, implementing proper origin validation checks, using the SameSite cookie attributes, and ensuring that administrative functions require explicit authentication tokens can significantly reduce the risk of exploitation. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of regular security audits and penetration testing to identify similar issues in web applications, as well as implementing proper input validation and output encoding to prevent similar CSRF attacks across the entire application stack. System administrators should also consider implementing network segmentation and monitoring to detect unusual administrative activity that might indicate exploitation attempts.