CVE-2020-36247 in Open OnDemand
Summary
by MITRE • 02/19/2021
Open OnDemand before 1.5.7 and 1.6.x before 1.6.22 allows CSRF.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/03/2021
Open OnDemand represents a web-based portal system designed to provide researchers and scientists with access to high-performance computing resources through a standardized interface. The vulnerability described in CVE-2020-36247 manifests as a cross-site request forgery flaw affecting versions prior to 1.5.7 and 1.6.x versions before 1.6.22. This vulnerability stems from the application's insufficient validation of HTTP requests originating from authenticated sessions, creating a scenario where malicious actors can exploit user sessions to perform unauthorized actions without their knowledge or consent. The flaw specifically impacts the portal's ability to distinguish between legitimate user-initiated requests and forged requests that appear to originate from authenticated users.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability occurs when the Open OnDemand application fails to properly verify the origin of requests through the use of anti-CSRF tokens or referer header validation. Attackers can craft malicious web pages or send specially crafted links to authenticated users, which when clicked, execute unintended operations within the context of the victim's authenticated session. This includes actions such as changing user settings, modifying resource allocations, or performing administrative functions that should require explicit user authorization. The vulnerability essentially allows attackers to leverage existing user privileges to execute malicious commands on behalf of authenticated users, making it particularly dangerous in research environments where users may have elevated access rights to computational resources.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive computational resources and data within research environments. In academic and scientific computing contexts, where Open OnDemand serves as a gateway to powerful computational clusters, such a flaw could enable attackers to consume excessive resources, potentially causing denial of service for legitimate users. The vulnerability also poses risks to data integrity and confidentiality, as unauthorized modifications to user accounts or system configurations could compromise ongoing research projects or expose sensitive information. Furthermore, the exploitation of this vulnerability could facilitate lateral movement within network environments where Open OnDemand serves as an entry point for accessing other systems or services.
Organizations utilizing Open OnDemand should prioritize immediate patching of affected versions to address this CSRF vulnerability. The remediation involves updating to versions 1.5.7 or 1.6.22 and later, which contain proper CSRF protection mechanisms. Security teams should also implement additional monitoring of authentication-related activities and user session behaviors to detect potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery, and corresponds to tactics in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under T1566, specifically "Phishing for Information" and T1078, "Valid Accounts." Organizations should also consider implementing additional security controls such as Content Security Policy headers and implementing proper session management practices to further reduce the attack surface and protect against similar vulnerabilities in the future.
The broader implications of this vulnerability highlight the importance of maintaining up-to-date security practices in scientific computing environments where web-based interfaces provide access to critical infrastructure. Research institutions and universities that rely on Open OnDemand for computational resource management must ensure comprehensive security assessments are performed regularly to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities. The vulnerability demonstrates how seemingly minor implementation flaws in web applications can have significant operational consequences in high-value research environments where computational resources represent substantial investments and sensitive data. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls and additional request validation mechanisms to provide defense-in-depth against CSRF and similar attack vectors that could compromise the integrity of computational research environments.