CVE-2019-3604 in ePO Cloud
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in McAfee ePO (legacy) Cloud allows unauthenticated users to perform unintended ePO actions using an authenticated user's session via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/04/2023
The CVE-2019-3604 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within McAfee ePO legacy cloud implementations that fundamentally undermines the security posture of enterprise endpoint protection environments. This vulnerability specifically targets the authentication and session management mechanisms of McAfee ePO, a widely deployed enterprise security platform that serves as a central management console for endpoint protection across organizations. The flaw enables unauthenticated attackers to exploit authenticated user sessions through unspecified vectors, effectively allowing malicious actors to execute unauthorized administrative actions against the ePO server without requiring valid credentials. The vulnerability exists in the legacy cloud version of ePO, suggesting that the issue may be particularly prevalent in older deployments that have not been migrated to more secure modern architectures. This type of vulnerability directly violates fundamental security principles of authentication and authorization, creating a pathway for attackers to manipulate the security infrastructure they are supposed to protect.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from inadequate protection mechanisms around critical administrative endpoints within the ePO legacy cloud framework. When legitimate users authenticate to the ePO management console, their sessions become susceptible to manipulation through crafted requests that leverage the user's existing authenticated session. The unspecified vectors suggest that the attack surface encompasses multiple potential entry points, potentially including API endpoints, administrative forms, or configuration interfaces. This vulnerability operates at the application layer and represents a classic CSRF attack pattern where the attacker crafts malicious requests that, when executed by an authenticated user, perform unintended operations within the context of that user's session. The attack vector typically involves tricking users into clicking malicious links or visiting compromised websites that automatically submit requests to the vulnerable ePO instance, leveraging the user's existing session cookies.
The operational impact of CVE-2019-3604 extends far beyond simple privilege escalation, as it provides attackers with the ability to manipulate critical enterprise security infrastructure. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could potentially modify security policies, add or remove endpoints from management, disable security features, or even execute arbitrary commands on managed systems. The implications are particularly severe because ePO serves as the central command and control interface for endpoint protection, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to undermine enterprise security defenses. Organizations utilizing legacy ePO deployments face significant risk of unauthorized configuration changes that could render their security infrastructure ineffective or even provide attackers with backdoor access to managed endpoints. The vulnerability essentially allows attackers to perform administrative actions without detection, creating a stealthy attack vector that could remain undetected for extended periods while compromising the integrity of the entire security ecosystem.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2019-3604 must address both immediate defensive measures and long-term architectural improvements. Organizations should implement comprehensive CSRF protection mechanisms including the use of anti-CSRF tokens, proper session management controls, and input validation on all administrative endpoints. The implementation of Content Security Policy headers and proper referer validation can provide additional layers of protection against cross-site request forgery attacks. Security teams should also consider implementing network segmentation and monitoring controls to detect unusual administrative activity patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. According to CWE standards, this vulnerability maps to CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery flaws, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for phishing attacks that leverage CSRF vulnerabilities. Organizations should prioritize upgrading to supported versions of McAfee ePO that address these legacy security issues, as the legacy cloud implementation likely contains additional vulnerabilities that compound the risk profile. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities across the enterprise security infrastructure.