CVE-2020-10487 in PHPKB Standard Multi-Language
Summary
by MITRE
CSRF in admin/manage-glossary.php in Chadha PHPKB Standard Multi-Language 9 allows attackers to delete a glossary term via a crafted request.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/12/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-10487 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Chadha PHPKB Standard Multi-Language version 9 content management system. This vulnerability specifically affects the admin/manage-glossary.php component, which serves as the administrative interface for managing glossary terms within the knowledge base system. The flaw enables unauthorized attackers to manipulate the system's administrative functions through maliciously crafted HTTP requests without requiring valid authentication credentials or session tokens.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF mechanisms within the administrative glossary management interface. When administrators access the manage-glossary.php page, the system fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions. Attackers can exploit this weakness by constructing malicious web pages or embedding malicious scripts that automatically submit deletion requests to the vulnerable endpoint. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it operates at the administrative level, allowing attackers to remove critical glossary terms that may contain important terminology definitions, technical jargon explanations, or business-specific vocabulary that users rely upon for understanding the knowledge base content.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations relying on the PHPKB system for maintaining technical documentation and knowledge repositories. The deletion of glossary terms can result in broken links, incomplete documentation, and loss of critical terminology definitions that users depend on for understanding complex technical concepts. This can lead to reduced productivity, increased support requests, and potential business disruption when users encounter missing or corrupted information within the knowledge base. The vulnerability is particularly concerning in environments where glossary terms contain proprietary technical terminology or industry-specific definitions that are essential for maintaining consistent communication across departments or with external stakeholders.
The attack vector for this vulnerability aligns with standard CSRF exploitation patterns as defined by the CWE-352 framework, where the system fails to validate the origin of requests that modify state within the application. This weakness can be exploited through various methods including social engineering campaigns where administrators are tricked into visiting malicious websites, or through embedded scripts in compromised web pages that automatically submit deletion requests. The vulnerability also maps to ATT&CK technique T1213.002 (External Remote Services) as it allows unauthorized modification of administrative content through external attack vectors. Organizations should implement proper input validation and implement anti-CSRF tokens that are unique to each administrative session to prevent unauthorized modifications to glossary terms.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include immediate implementation of anti-CSRF token validation mechanisms within the administrative interface, ensuring that each request to manage-glossary.php includes a unique, session-specific token that prevents unauthorized requests from executing successfully. Additionally, organizations should implement proper access controls and session management protocols to ensure that only authenticated administrators can access administrative functions. Regular security audits and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other administrative components of the system. The implementation of web application firewalls and input validation controls can provide additional layers of protection against such attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing logging and monitoring for administrative activities to detect and respond to unauthorized access attempts.