CVE-2021-4268 in phpRedisAdmin
Summary
by MITRE • 12/21/2022
A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in phpRedisAdmin up to 1.17.3. This affects an unknown part. The manipulation leads to cross-site request forgery. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. Upgrading to version 1.18.0 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is b9039adbb264c81333328faa9575ecf8e0d2be94. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. The associated identifier of this vulnerability is VDB-216471.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/22/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-4268 represents a cross-site request forgery flaw within phpRedisAdmin version 1.17.3 and earlier, classified under the CWE-352 category which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities. This issue resides in the application's authentication and session management mechanisms, where the system fails to properly validate the origin of requests, allowing malicious actors to exploit the weakness through crafted requests that appear legitimate to the target system. The vulnerability's impact is significant as it enables unauthorized actions to be performed on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent, potentially leading to data manipulation, privilege escalation, or complete system compromise.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from phpRedisAdmin's insufficient validation of request authenticity, particularly in how it handles session tokens and request origins. The application does not adequately verify that requests originate from legitimate sources within the same origin domain, creating an opening for attackers to craft malicious requests that exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its users. This weakness allows for remote exploitation, meaning attackers can leverage the vulnerability from external networks without requiring physical access to the target system. The vulnerability affects the application's administrative functions, potentially enabling attackers to perform operations such as creating new users, modifying existing configurations, or accessing sensitive data within the Redis database management interface.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft, as it can enable attackers to gain persistent access to Redis databases through the compromised phpRedisAdmin interface. This represents a critical security risk for organizations that rely on Redis for caching, session management, or data storage, as the exploitation could lead to complete database compromise, data exfiltration, or service disruption. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers can target exposed phpRedisAdmin interfaces without requiring direct network access to internal systems, making it particularly dangerous in cloud environments or publicly accessible applications. Organizations using affected versions may experience unauthorized access to their Redis instances, potentially compromising the integrity of their entire data infrastructure.
The recommended mitigation strategy involves upgrading to phpRedisAdmin version 1.18.0 or later, which includes the patch identified by the commit hash b9039adbb264c81333328faa9575ecf8e0d2be94. This upgrade addresses the CSRF vulnerability by implementing proper origin validation and ensuring that all requests are properly authenticated before execution. Security practitioners should also implement additional protective measures such as deploying web application firewalls, configuring proper CORS policies, and implementing multi-factor authentication for administrative access. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of the affected software and ensure that proper access controls are in place to limit exposure. The remediation process should include validating that the upgrade has been successfully applied and verifying that CSRF protection mechanisms are functioning correctly through penetration testing and security scanning activities. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566.002 which involves social engineering through web application attacks, emphasizing the importance of robust application security controls in preventing unauthorized access to critical infrastructure components.