CVE-2019-18346 in DAViCal
Summary
by MITRE
A CSRF issue was discovered in DAViCal through 1.1.8. If an authenticated user visits an attacker-controlled webpage, the attacker can send arbitrary requests in the name of the user to the application. If the attacked user is an administrator, the attacker could for example add a new admin user.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/07/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-18346 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the DAViCal calendar and scheduling application version 1.1.8 and earlier. This weakness stems from the application's inadequate protection against unauthorized requests originating from external domains, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on the platform for calendar management and collaboration. The vulnerability operates through a fundamental failure in the application's request validation mechanisms, which do not properly verify the origin of incoming requests from authenticated users.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability allows attackers to exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its authenticated users. When an authenticated user navigates to a malicious webpage controlled by the attacker, the attacker can craft and execute arbitrary requests against the vulnerable DAViCal instance without the user's knowledge or consent. This occurs because the application fails to implement proper anti-CSRF tokens or origin validation checks that would normally prevent requests from unauthorized sources. The flaw specifically affects the application's handling of state-changing operations, enabling attackers to perform administrative actions on behalf of legitimate users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation to encompass full administrative control over affected systems. An attacker who successfully exploits this weakness can add new administrator accounts, modify existing user permissions, delete calendar entries, and potentially access sensitive calendar data belonging to other users. This represents a severe privilege escalation attack vector that directly violates the principle of least privilege and could lead to complete system compromise. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where DAViCal serves as a central calendar and scheduling system for business operations.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens for all state-changing operations, implementation of proper referer header validation, and enforcement of strict origin checking mechanisms. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses in web applications, and corresponds to attack patterns within the ATT&CK framework under T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for phishing techniques. Additionally, security professionals should consider implementing web application firewalls and monitoring for suspicious request patterns to detect potential exploitation attempts. Regular security updates and patch management processes should be prioritized to address this and similar vulnerabilities in collaborative software platforms.