CVE-2023-43149 in SPA-Cart
Summary
by MITRE • 10/25/2023
SPA-Cart 1.9.0.3 is vulnerable to Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) that allows a remote attacker to add an admin user with role status.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/03/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-43149 affects SPA-Cart version 1.9.0.3 and represents a critical cross site request forgery flaw that undermines the application's security controls. This vulnerability resides within the web application's user management functionality, specifically targeting the administrative user creation process. The flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate the application's behavior through forged requests without the victim's knowledge or consent, exploiting the absence of proper anti-CSRF protections in the affected software.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the application's failure to validate the origin of requests made to administrative endpoints. When an administrator performs actions such as creating new user accounts with elevated privileges, the application should verify that the request originates from a legitimate source within the application's own domain. However, SPA-Cart 1.9.0.3 lacks proper CSRF token validation mechanisms, allowing attackers to craft malicious requests that appear to come from authenticated administrators. This weakness directly aligns with CWE-352, which defines Cross-Site Request Forgery as a vulnerability where an attacker tricks a victim into performing actions they did not intend to execute.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching within the affected system's security posture. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw can add new administrative accounts with full privileges, effectively gaining unauthorized access to the application's administrative interface. This capability allows for complete system compromise, enabling attackers to modify user permissions, access sensitive data, alter application configurations, and potentially establish persistent backdoors. The vulnerability essentially provides a pathway for attackers to escalate their privileges from regular users to full administrators, undermining the application's access control mechanisms and user authentication processes.
From a threat modeling perspective, this vulnerability maps directly to several ATT&CK techniques including T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for social engineering attacks that leverage CSRF exploits. The attack surface is particularly concerning because it requires minimal user interaction beyond the initial compromise, often involving simple web browser navigation or automated script execution. The vulnerability is classified as a remote code execution risk due to the potential for attackers to gain full administrative control over the affected system. Organizations using SPA-Cart 1.9.0.3 should immediately assess their exposure to this vulnerability and implement compensating controls while planning for software updates.
The recommended mitigations include implementing robust CSRF token validation mechanisms that generate unique tokens for each user session and validate them against the originating request. Organizations should also enforce proper request origin verification and implement additional authentication controls such as two-factor authentication for administrative accounts. The application should be updated to a patched version that addresses the CSRF implementation flaws, as vendors typically provide security patches to resolve such vulnerabilities. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be employed to detect unusual administrative account creation patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other web applications within the organization's infrastructure.