CVE-2024-25904 in TinyMCE Advanced Professional Formats and Styles Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 02/21/2024
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in David Stockl TinyMCE and TinyMCE Advanced Professsional Formats and Styles.This issue affects TinyMCE and TinyMCE Advanced Professsional Formats and Styles: from n/a through 1.1.2.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/21/2024
The Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-25904 represents a critical security flaw within the TinyMCE rich text editor and its advanced professional formats and styles plugin. This vulnerability exists in versions ranging from an unspecified initial version through 1.1.2, creating a persistent risk for users who rely on these components for content management and web editing functionality. The flaw stems from inadequate validation of cross-site requests, allowing malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship between users and web applications.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability occurs when the TinyMCE editor fails to properly verify the origin of requests made through its interface. When users navigate to web pages containing the vulnerable TinyMCE plugin, their browsers automatically send requests to the application without proper authentication tokens or origin verification mechanisms. This weakness enables attackers to craft malicious requests that appear to originate from legitimate users, bypassing standard security controls designed to prevent unauthorized actions. The vulnerability specifically impacts the professional formats and styles functionality, which provides advanced editing capabilities including formatting options, style management, and content structure modifications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, potentially allowing attackers to perform unauthorized administrative actions within applications that utilize the affected TinyMCE components. Attackers could leverage this flaw to modify content, alter user permissions, delete important data, or even escalate privileges within the web application. The risk is particularly severe in content management systems, blogging platforms, and web applications where editors and administrators use TinyMCE for content creation and modification. The vulnerability can be exploited through various attack vectors including phishing emails, compromised websites, or malicious third-party integrations that embed the vulnerable editor components.
Security professionals should consider this vulnerability in the context of CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery flaws in software applications. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this issue under T1566.002 for Phishing and T1078.004 for Valid Accounts, as attackers may use CSRF attacks to gain unauthorized access to user accounts and subsequently exploit legitimate credentials for further compromise. Organizations using the affected TinyMCE versions should immediately implement mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens, proper origin validation mechanisms, and the implementation of Content Security Policy headers. The most effective remediation involves upgrading to patched versions of the TinyMCE editor and its professional formats and styles plugin, while also ensuring that all web applications utilizing these components implement proper CSRF protection measures including the use of unique, unpredictable tokens for each user session and verification of request origins.