CVE-2019-12784 in Impact 360
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in Verint Impact 360 15.1. At wfo/control/signin, the login form can accept submissions from external websites. In conjunction with CVE-2019-12783, this can be used by attackers to "crowdsource" bruteforce login attempts on the target site, allowing them to guess and potentially compromise valid credentials without ever sending any traffic from their own machine to the target site.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/15/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-12784 resides within Verint Impact 360 version 15.1, specifically affecting the authentication mechanism at the wfo/control/signin endpoint. This flaw represents a significant security weakness that enables attackers to exploit the login form's design to conduct credential stuffing and brute force attacks from external domains. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of the referer header or origin domain, allowing malicious actors to submit login requests through third-party websites, effectively masking their true source and making attack attribution difficult.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability allows for cross-site request forgery (CSRF) like behavior within the authentication context, where the system fails to properly verify the originating source of login attempts. This flaw operates in conjunction with CVE-2019-12783, which likely involves a separate authentication weakness that when combined with this vulnerability creates a more potent attack vector. The exploitation technique leverages what cybersecurity professionals refer to as "crowdsourcing" of brute force attempts, where multiple external websites can participate in credential guessing without the attacker needing to establish direct connections to the target system. This approach aligns with tactics described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under credential access and initial access phases, specifically targeting authentication mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple credential theft, as it enables attackers to conduct large-scale brute force operations while maintaining anonymity and evading traditional network-based detection mechanisms. The attack methodology effectively creates a distributed attack infrastructure where each participating external website acts as a proxy for sending login attempts, making it extremely difficult for security monitoring systems to identify and block malicious activity. This vulnerability represents a classic case of insufficient input validation and cross-site request validation, which maps directly to CWE-352 - Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) and CWE-285 - Improper Authorization. Organizations using Verint Impact 360 15.1 face significant risk of unauthorized access to their systems, potential data breaches, and compromise of user credentials through these indirect attack vectors.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper origin validation mechanisms at the authentication endpoint, including strict referer header checking and implementation of anti-CSRF tokens that are validated against the legitimate origin domains. Organizations should also implement rate limiting and account lockout mechanisms to prevent successful brute force attempts, along with enhanced monitoring for unusual login patterns and cross-domain request behaviors. The solution must address both the immediate vulnerability in the login form processing and establish broader security controls to prevent similar issues in other authentication endpoints. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls with advanced detection capabilities to identify and block suspicious cross-site authentication attempts, as well as conduct comprehensive security assessments to identify other potential vulnerabilities in the application's authentication architecture that may be susceptible to similar exploitation techniques.