CVE-2023-47322 in Silverpeas
Summary
by MITRE • 12/13/2023
The "userModify" feature of Silverpeas Core 6.3.1 is vulnerable to Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) leading to privilege escalation. If an administrator goes to a malicious URL while being authenticated to the Silverpeas application, the CSRF with execute making the attacker an administrator user in the application.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/10/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-47322 resides within the userModify functionality of Silverpeas Core version 6.3.1, representing a critical cross site request forgery weakness that enables unauthorized privilege escalation. This vulnerability specifically targets the application's administrative capabilities and exploits the trust relationship between authenticated users and the web application. The flaw allows attackers to manipulate administrative functions through crafted requests that appear legitimate to the application's security mechanisms.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper validation mechanisms for administrative operations within the userModify feature. When an authenticated administrator navigates to a maliciously crafted URL, the application processes the request without verifying the authenticity of the origin or the user's intent. This occurs because the application fails to implement anti-forgery tokens or other sufficient protection mechanisms that would normally prevent unauthorized requests from being executed on behalf of authenticated users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching within the Silverpeas application environment. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw can elevate their privileges from a regular user to full administrator status, thereby gaining complete control over the application's administrative functions. This includes access to user management, configuration settings, content modification capabilities, and potentially sensitive data repositories. The vulnerability essentially allows attackers to bypass the application's access control mechanisms and assume the highest level of administrative privileges.
The exploitation process requires minimal technical expertise and can be accomplished through social engineering tactics, where administrators are tricked into visiting malicious websites or clicking on compromised links while maintaining their authenticated session. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can be leveraged in targeted attacks against specific administrators without requiring extensive reconnaissance or advanced technical skills. The attack vector demonstrates a clear violation of the principle of least privilege, as the application fails to properly validate that administrative operations originate from legitimate sources.
Organizations utilizing Silverpeas Core 6.3.1 should immediately implement mitigations including the deployment of anti-forgery tokens for all administrative functions, implementation of proper referer header validation, and enforcement of same-site cookies for critical operations. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross site request forgery weaknesses, and represents a direct violation of the ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1548.001 for privilege escalation. Additionally, this vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing proper session management and request validation mechanisms as outlined in OWASP Top Ten category A05:2021 - Security Misconfiguration and the principle of defense in depth as specified in NIST SP 800-53.
The recommended remediation approach involves immediate patching of the Silverpeas Core application to version 6.3.2 or later, which contains the necessary CSRF protection mechanisms. Organizations should also implement comprehensive monitoring of administrative activities and establish user awareness programs to prevent social engineering attacks that exploit this vulnerability. Security teams must conduct thorough assessments of similar administrative functions throughout the application to identify and remediate potential CSRF vulnerabilities in other components. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of implementing robust CSRF protection mechanisms, particularly for administrative functions, and demonstrates how seemingly minor implementation gaps can lead to catastrophic security consequences.