CVE-2024-27689 in Stupid Simple CMS
Summary
by MITRE • 03/01/2024
Stupid Simple CMS v1.2.4 was discovered to contain a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) via /update-article.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/18/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-27689 affects Stupid Simple CMS version 1.2.4 and represents a critical Cross-Site Request Forgery flaw located within the /update-article.php endpoint. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks that occur when a web application fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources. The flaw enables attackers to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent, making it particularly dangerous in content management systems where administrative privileges are involved.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-forgery tokens or other validation mechanisms within the update-article.php script. When an authenticated user visits a malicious website or clicks on a crafted link, the attacker can exploit the lack of CSRF protection to execute unauthorized modifications to articles within the CMS. This weakness aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566.002, which covers the exploitation of web applications through CSRF attacks. The vulnerability specifically targets the update functionality of the CMS, potentially allowing attackers to modify article content, alter publication status, or even inject malicious code into the content management system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple content modification, as it can serve as a stepping stone for more severe attacks within the CMS environment. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw could potentially escalate privileges, modify critical system configurations, or establish persistent access through content injection. The vulnerability affects any user with sufficient privileges to update articles, which in many CMS implementations includes editors, administrators, or content managers. This makes the attack surface particularly broad and potentially damaging to organizations relying on this CMS for content management.
Organizations utilizing Stupid Simple CMS v1.2.4 should immediately implement mitigations including the addition of anti-forgery tokens to all state-changing requests, implementation of proper referer header validation, and consideration of SameSite cookie attributes. The fix should involve generating unique tokens for each user session and validating these tokens on the server side before processing any update requests. Security patches should be prioritized as this vulnerability directly enables unauthorized modifications to content and potentially provides attackers with opportunities to establish further footholds within the system. Additionally, implementing proper input validation and output encoding practices can help prevent potential exploitation of this vulnerability in combination with other weaknesses.