CVE-2026-78280 in Hash Form Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 08/24/2026
Unauthenticated Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in Hash Form <= 1.4.0 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/24/2026
The vulnerability identified as an unauthenticated Cross-Site Request Forgery within Hash Form versions prior to 1.4.0 represents a critical security flaw that undermines the integrity of state-changing operations performed by authenticated users. This type of attack exploits the inherent trust that web applications place in requests originating from their own domain, specifically targeting mechanisms where session cookies are automatically included with HTTP requests sent by the browser. In this specific context, the application fails to implement adequate anti-CSRF protections for forms processed by the Hash Form plugin, allowing an attacker to craft malicious HTML or JavaScript payloads that can be hosted on a different origin and tricked into executing within the victim's active session.
From a technical perspective, the core deficiency lies in the absence of synchronizer tokens or other validation mechanisms that verify the intent behind each state-changing request. When a user logs into an application utilizing Hash Form, their browser retains authentication credentials such as session cookies. If the form submission endpoint does not require a unique, unpredictable token tied to the user's specific session, any external site can initiate requests on behalf of the victim without their knowledge or consent. This is particularly dangerous because it operates entirely unauthenticated in terms of attack initiation; the attacker does not need valid credentials but rather relies on the victim being logged into the target application at the time of exploitation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe, as it can lead to unauthorized data manipulation, privilege escalation, or complete account takeover depending on the functionality exposed by the Hash Form plugin. An adversary could potentially modify user profiles, change email addresses associated with accounts, delete critical records, or perform administrative actions if such capabilities are accessible through the vulnerable forms. Since CSRF attacks often bypass traditional access controls that rely solely on cookie-based authentication, they pose a significant risk to data integrity and confidentiality. The lack of visual cues for these forged requests means victims remain unaware until damage is done, making detection difficult without comprehensive logging and anomaly monitoring systems in place.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which classifies Cross-Site Request Forgery as an issue where a web application uses user-supplied input without proper validation or verification of intent. Furthermore, it maps to the MITRE ATT&CK framework under technique T1089, specifically within the Disabling Security Tools sub-technique if used to alter security settings, or more broadly under Initial Access and Execution vectors depending on how the forged requests are delivered via phishing or malicious websites. The exploitation typically involves social engineering tactics where a victim is lured to visit a crafted page that silently submits forms in the background using their existing session state.
To mitigate this risk, developers must implement robust anti-CSRF measures immediately upon upgrading beyond version 1.4.0 or by applying patches if available for older versions. The standard industry practice involves generating unique, cryptographically secure random tokens per user session and embedding them as hidden fields in all forms that perform state-changing operations. These tokens must be validated server-side on every request to ensure they match the current session context. Additionally, implementing SameSite cookie attributes set to Strict or Lax can significantly reduce the risk by preventing browsers from sending cookies with cross-site requests. Complementing these technical controls with regular security audits and code reviews focused on input validation will further harden the application against such forgery attacks.