CVE-2020-23264 in ForkCMS
Summary
by MITRE • 05/07/2021
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) in Fork-CMS before 5.8.2 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of logged administrators.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/12/2021
This cross-site request forgery vulnerability in Fork-CMS versions prior to 5.8.2 represents a critical security flaw that enables remote attackers to exploit authenticated administrator sessions through malicious web requests. The vulnerability stems from the application's insufficient validation of request origins and lack of proper anti-CSRF token implementation in administrative endpoints. Attackers can craft malicious requests that appear to originate from legitimate administrative interfaces, allowing them to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated administrators without their knowledge or consent.
The technical implementation of this CSRF flaw occurs when administrators navigate to malicious websites or click on compromised links while maintaining an active administrative session. The vulnerability manifests because Fork-CMS does not adequately verify that requests originate from legitimate administrative interfaces or require cryptographic tokens to validate the authenticity of administrative actions. This weakness allows attackers to leverage the administrator's existing session to execute privileged operations such as modifying user accounts, changing system configurations, or accessing sensitive data without authentication. The flaw operates at the application layer and specifically targets the administrative interface components that handle user management and system configuration tasks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it provides attackers with elevated privileges within the Fork-CMS environment. Administrators who are logged into the system can be tricked into executing malicious requests through social engineering techniques, phishing campaigns, or compromised websites. Once exploited, attackers can gain complete control over the content management system, potentially leading to data breaches, unauthorized modifications, and full system compromise. The vulnerability affects all administrative functions within the CMS, making it particularly dangerous as attackers can perform any action that an authenticated administrator could perform, including creating new administrator accounts, modifying content, or deleting critical system files.
Organizations using Fork-CMS versions prior to 5.8.2 should immediately implement the available security patches provided by the Fork-CMS development team to address this vulnerability. The recommended mitigation involves implementing proper CSRF token validation mechanisms that generate unique tokens for each administrative session and validate these tokens with every privileged request. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing Content Security Policy headers to prevent unauthorized script execution and ensure that all administrative interfaces properly validate request origins. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery conditions, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1566 for social engineering attacks that leverage authentication tokens. Regular security audits should verify that all administrative endpoints properly implement CSRF protection measures to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being introduced in future development cycles.