CVE-2021-38705 in ClinicCases
Summary
by MITRE • 09/08/2021
ClinicCases 7.3.3 is affected by Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). A successful attack would consist of an authenticated user following a malicious link, resulting in arbitrary actions being carried out with the privilege level of the targeted user. This can be exploited to create a secondary administrator account for the attacker.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/10/2021
ClinicCases version 7.3.3 contains a critical cross-site request forgery vulnerability that fundamentally compromises the application's authentication and authorization mechanisms. This vulnerability resides in the application's failure to properly validate and enforce anti-CSRF tokens across critical administrative operations, creating a pathway for attackers to execute unauthorized actions on behalf of legitimate users. The flaw specifically affects the administrative account creation functionality, where an authenticated user can be tricked into visiting a malicious website that automatically submits requests to the vulnerable application without their knowledge or consent. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery conditions in web applications, making it a well-documented and serious security weakness in the application's defensive architecture.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms within the administrative endpoints responsible for user account management. When an authenticated user navigates to a maliciously crafted webpage, the attacker can leverage the user's existing session to submit forged requests that create new administrative accounts. This occurs because the application does not validate the presence of anti-CSRF tokens in requests made to administrative functions, nor does it implement sufficient origin validation or referer checking. The attack vector typically involves embedding malicious requests within image tags or hidden forms that automatically execute when the user visits the compromised page, exploiting the browser's automatic session handling capabilities.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple unauthorized access, as it allows attackers to establish persistent administrative control over the application. Successful exploitation enables threat actors to create secondary administrator accounts with full privileges, effectively granting them complete control over the ClinicCases system. This includes the ability to modify patient records, access sensitive medical data, alter application configurations, and potentially exfiltrate or corrupt data. The vulnerability also creates a persistent backdoor that remains active as long as the attacker maintains access to the created administrative account, making it particularly dangerous for healthcare environments where patient privacy and data integrity are paramount. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability maps to TA0001 Initial Access and TA0003 Persistence, as it provides both initial entry points and long-term access mechanisms.
Organizations using ClinicCases 7.3.3 should immediately implement multiple layers of mitigation strategies to protect against this vulnerability. The primary remediation involves implementing robust anti-CSRF token mechanisms across all administrative functions, ensuring that every request to sensitive endpoints contains and validates proper tokens. Additionally, applications should enforce strict referer header validation and implement Content Security Policy headers to prevent unauthorized script execution. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls should be deployed to detect and block suspicious request patterns. The vulnerability also underscores the importance of regular security assessments and patch management, as this type of flaw often indicates broader architectural weaknesses in the application's security design. Organizations should also consider implementing user session monitoring and anomaly detection systems to identify potential exploitation attempts. The recommended approach aligns with industry best practices outlined in OWASP's CSRF prevention guidelines and NIST cybersecurity frameworks, emphasizing the need for defense-in-depth strategies that protect against both known and emerging threats in healthcare information systems.