CVE-2019-11332 in MKCMS
Summary
by MITRE
MKCMS 5.0 allows remote attackers to take over arbitrary user accounts by posting a username and e-mail address to ucenter/repass.php, which triggers e-mail transmission with the password, as demonstrated by 123456.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/04/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-11332 affects MKCMS 5.0, a content management system that exposes a critical security flaw in its user account recovery mechanism. This issue resides within the ucenter/repass.php endpoint which processes password reset requests without proper authentication verification or account validation. The flaw enables unauthenticated remote attackers to exploit the system's password recovery functionality by simply submitting any username and email address combination, effectively bypassing normal security controls that should validate user identity before initiating password reset procedures.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and authentication checks within the password recovery workflow. When an attacker submits a username and email address to the repass.php endpoint, the system automatically generates and transmits a password reset email containing the actual password for the specified account. This behavior represents a fundamental failure in security design where the system assumes the legitimacy of the submitted credentials without verifying that the email address corresponds to an actual registered user account. The vulnerability operates under CWE-306, which addresses missing authentication for critical functions, and specifically manifests as a lack of proper access control mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching, as it provides attackers with complete unauthorized access to any user account within the system. The demonstration of the exploit using the username "123456" reveals that attackers can systematically target any account by simply knowing the username and associated email address, potentially leading to full system compromise. This vulnerability directly enables account takeover attacks, which fall under the ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential harvesting. The implications extend beyond simple unauthorized access as compromised accounts can be used to escalate privileges, exfiltrate sensitive data, or establish persistent access points within the network infrastructure.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2019-11332 must address the core authentication and validation issues within the password recovery system. Organizations should immediately implement proper input validation that verifies the legitimacy of submitted email addresses against registered user accounts before initiating any password reset procedures. The system should enforce proper authentication checks to ensure that only authorized users can request password resets, and should implement rate limiting to prevent automated exploitation attempts. Additionally, the password recovery mechanism should be redesigned to generate random tokens rather than transmitting actual passwords, following security best practices for credential recovery. Network-level protections such as intrusion detection systems and web application firewalls should be configured to monitor and block suspicious requests to the repass.php endpoint. Regular security audits and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar authentication bypass vulnerabilities, while proper access control mechanisms should be implemented to ensure that only legitimate users can access account recovery functions. The fix should also include logging and monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to unauthorized password reset attempts, ensuring that the system maintains proper audit trails for security incident investigation and compliance requirements.