CVE-2019-14345 in TemaTres
Summary
by MITRE
TemaTres 3.0 allows remote unprivileged users to create an administrator account
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/20/2024
TemaTres 3.0 represents a web-based terminology management system that facilitates the creation and maintenance of controlled vocabularies and thesauri for information organization. This vulnerability affects the application's user privilege management system, specifically targeting the account creation mechanism that lacks proper access controls and authorization checks. The flaw exists within the application's administrative interface where unauthenticated or low-privilege users can exploit a logic error in the account creation workflow to escalate their privileges and gain administrator access to the system.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and privilege verification within the user registration and account creation process. When users attempt to create new accounts through the application's interface, the system fails to properly validate whether the requesting user possesses the necessary administrative permissions to create accounts with elevated privileges. This represents a classic privilege escalation vulnerability that aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization within software systems. The flaw allows any remote user to bypass normal account creation restrictions and automatically assign administrator roles to newly created accounts, effectively undermining the application's access control model.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it provides attackers with a straightforward path to gain full administrative control over the TemaTres terminology management system. Once an attacker successfully creates an administrator account, they can modify or delete all existing terminology records, alter access permissions for other users, and potentially access sensitive metadata or user information stored within the system. This vulnerability can be exploited remotely without requiring any prior authentication credentials, making it particularly dangerous in environments where the application is exposed to untrusted networks or internet-facing servers. The attack vector directly maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers legitimate credentials and account access, though in this case the vulnerability allows for account creation rather than credential theft.
Security implications extend beyond immediate administrative access as the compromised system can serve as a foothold for further attacks within the network infrastructure. An attacker with administrator privileges could potentially modify system configurations, install malicious software, or use the application as a pivot point to access other systems within the organization's network. The vulnerability also raises concerns about data integrity and confidentiality, as administrators have unrestricted access to all terminology records and associated metadata. Organizations utilizing TemaTres 3.0 should immediately assess their deployment environments and implement mitigations to prevent exploitation of this vulnerability.
Recommended mitigations include applying the vendor's official security patch or upgrade to a patched version of TemaTres that addresses the privilege escalation issue. Until a permanent fix is applied, organizations should restrict network access to the application through firewall rules, implement strict network segmentation, and monitor system logs for unauthorized account creation attempts. Additional defensive measures include enabling multi-factor authentication for all user accounts, implementing regular security audits of user privileges, and establishing network monitoring to detect suspicious account creation activities. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper access control implementation and the need for comprehensive security testing of privilege management features in web applications.