CVE-2022-4849 in memos
Summary
by MITRE • 12/29/2022
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in GitHub repository usememos/memos prior to 0.9.1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/26/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-4849 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the usememos/memos repository prior to version 0.9.1. This repository serves as a self-hosted memo application that allows users to create, manage, and organize notes and memos. The CSRF vulnerability arises from insufficient validation of request origins and lack of proper anti-CSRF token implementation within the application's web interface. Attackers can exploit this weakness to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent. The flaw specifically affects the application's ability to distinguish between legitimate requests originating from the intended web interface and malicious requests crafted by attackers. This vulnerability resides within the application's authentication and authorization mechanisms, where the system fails to properly verify the source of incoming requests. The issue impacts all users who have authenticated sessions within the memos application, potentially allowing attackers to execute actions such as creating, modifying, or deleting memos, changing user settings, or performing administrative functions. The vulnerability's severity is amplified by the fact that it affects a self-hosted application where users may have elevated privileges and access to sensitive data. According to CWE classification, this represents a CWE-352 Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability, which falls under the category of web application security flaws. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this under T1531 Credential Access: Use of Web Services, as it enables unauthorized access through forged requests. The vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens in critical application endpoints, particularly those related to memo creation, modification, and deletion operations. These endpoints do not validate the referer header or implement proper token-based validation mechanisms that would prevent attackers from crafting malicious requests that could be executed in the context of authenticated users. The exploitation requires minimal technical expertise as attackers can leverage existing web application vulnerabilities or create simple HTML forms to submit forged requests to the vulnerable application. The impact extends beyond simple data manipulation as this vulnerability could potentially allow attackers to escalate privileges or gain unauthorized access to sensitive information stored within the memo repository. The vulnerability affects the application's integrity and availability, as unauthorized modifications to memos could compromise the reliability of stored information. Additionally, the vulnerability could enable attackers to perform actions that might not be immediately visible to users, leading to potential data loss or corruption. The fix implemented in version 0.9.1 addresses this by introducing proper anti-CSRF token validation mechanisms, ensuring that all state-changing requests require valid tokens that are tied to the user's current session. Organizations using this application should immediately upgrade to version 0.9.1 or later to mitigate this vulnerability. The mitigation strategy involves not only updating the application but also implementing proper security monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts. Security teams should also review other endpoints within the application to ensure similar vulnerabilities do not exist in other parts of the codebase. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing proper CSRF protection mechanisms in web applications, particularly those handling sensitive user data. Regular security assessments and code reviews focusing on authentication and authorization controls are essential to prevent similar issues from arising in future versions. The incident underscores the need for comprehensive security testing during development cycles and proper validation of all user inputs and requests to maintain application integrity and user trust.