Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in CMS Made Simple

Advisory ID: HTB23121
Product: CMS Made Simple
Vendor: cmsmadesimple.org
Vulnerable Version(s): 1.11.2 and probably prior
Tested Version: 1.11.2
Vendor Notification: October 17, 2012
Public Disclosure: November 7, 2012
Vulnerability Type: Cross-Site Request Forgery [CWE-352]
CVE Reference: CVE-2012-5450
CVSSv2 Base Score: 2.6 (AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P)
Solution Status: Fixed by Vendor
Risk Level: Low
Discovered and Provided: High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab ( https://www.htbridge.com/advisory/ )

Advisory Details:

High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab discovered vulnerability in CMS Made Simple, which can be exploited to perform cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.

1. Сross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in CMS Made Simple: CVE-2012-5450

The application allows authorized administrator to perform certain actions via HTTP requests without making proper validity checks to verify the source of the requests. This can be exploited to delete arbitrary files and directories.

An attacker should make logged-in administrator open a malicious link in the browser to exploit this vulnerability.

The following PoC (Proof of Concept) code will delete the root directory with all files leading to complete destroy of the CMS:

http://[host]/lib/filemanager/imagemanager/images.php?deld=…/…/
<img src="http://[host]/lib/filemanager/imagemanager/images.php?deld=…/…/" width=1 height=1>

Successful exploitation requires that user under which the web server is running has write access to files or directories to delete.

Solution:

Upgrade to CMSMS 1.11.2.1

More Information:
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&amp;t=63545

References:

[1] High-Tech Bridge Advisory HTB23121 - https://www.htbridge.com/advisory/HTB23121 - Сross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in CMS Made Simple.
[2] CMS Made Simple - http://www.cmsmadesimple.org - CMS Made Simple, an open source content management system, allows for faster and easier management of website content. This CMS is scalable for small businesses to large corporations.
[3] Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) - http://cve.mitre.org/ - international in scope and free for public use, CVE® is a dictionary of publicly known information security vulnerabilities and exposures.
[4] Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) - http://cwe.mitre.org - targeted to developers and security practitioners, CWE is a formal list of software weakness types.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this Advisory is provided "as is" and without any warranty of any kind. Details of this Advisory may be updated in order to provide as accurate information as possible. The latest version of the Advisory is available on web page [1] in the References.