CVE-2022-43693 in Concrete
Summary
by MITRE • 11/14/2022
Concrete CMS is vulnerable to CSRF due to the lack of "State" parameter for external Concrete authentication service for users of Concrete who use the "out of the box" core OAuth.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/30/2025
Concrete CMS suffers from a cross-site request forgery vulnerability that stems from the absence of proper state parameter validation within its external authentication service implementation. This flaw specifically affects users who utilize the default core OAuth functionality for authentication purposes, creating a significant security weakness that can be exploited by malicious actors. The vulnerability manifests when the authentication flow lacks adequate protection mechanisms to verify the authenticity of requests originating from legitimate users.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the insufficient implementation of OAuth 2.0 security protocols within Concrete CMS's authentication framework. The state parameter serves as a crucial security mechanism that prevents CSRF attacks by ensuring that authentication requests originate from the same session context. Without this parameter, attackers can craft malicious requests that appear to come from legitimate users, potentially gaining unauthorized access to user accounts or performing unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users.
This vulnerability creates a substantial operational impact for Concrete CMS users and administrators, as it allows attackers to exploit the authentication flow to perform unauthorized actions. The flaw particularly affects users who rely on the out-of-the-box OAuth implementation, making it a widespread concern across installations that utilize default authentication configurations. Attackers can leverage this weakness to manipulate user sessions, potentially leading to account takeovers, unauthorized data access, or privilege escalation within the CMS environment.
The security implications extend beyond simple authentication bypasses, as this vulnerability can enable more sophisticated attack vectors including session hijacking and privilege abuse. According to CWE standards, this represents a classic implementation flaw in authentication mechanisms, specifically categorized under CWE-352 which addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities. The attack surface is further expanded when considering that many CMS installations rely on default configurations, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where security hardening has not been implemented.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper state parameter validation within the OAuth authentication flow, ensuring that all external authentication requests contain and validate the state parameter before processing. Administrators should also consider implementing additional security measures such as request origin validation and enhanced session management protocols. The recommended approach includes updating to patched versions of Concrete CMS that properly implement OAuth 2.0 security standards and conducting thorough security assessments of authentication flows. Organizations should also consider implementing additional monitoring and logging mechanisms to detect potential exploitation attempts of this vulnerability. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability falls under the credential access category, specifically targeting authentication bypass techniques that can be used to escalate privileges or gain unauthorized access to user accounts within the CMS environment.