A new Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability (CVE-2024-41581) has been discovered in PowerAdmin. This vulnerability poses a significant risk, potentially compromising user data and disrupting the designated functionality across roles.
This article aims to provide an in-depth exploration of the vulnerability, its discovery, current status, and the necessary mitigation steps.
What is PowerAdmin?
Released under a GPL License, PowerAdmin is a web-based tool designed to manage PowerDNS servers, which direct traffic to the appropriate websites. PowerAdmin simplifies this process by offering a user-friendly interface that is accessible through a web browser.
During routine security scans, Astra’s Security Team uncovered a new CSRF vulnerability in PowerAdmin.
What is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Vulnerability?
A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability exploits a web application’s trust in a user’s authenticated browser by tricking the victim’s browser into performing unintended actions on a trusted website.
Attackers craft malicious links or forms that exploit a trusted website’s trust in your authenticated browser. When a user interacts with these disguised requests (through phishing emails, social media posts, or compromised websites), their browser unknowingly submits them to the trusted site with your valid credentials.
Since the user is already authenticated, the server treats the request legitimate and executes the attacker’s defined action.
What is the Impact of CSRF?
1. Unauthorized User Creation with Elevated Privileges:
CSRF attacks can forge HTTP requests to create new user accounts, potentially with high privileges, by manipulating account creation parameters. This grants unauthorized access to sensitive data and functionalities depending on the default permissions assigned to new users.
2. Privilege Escalation via Functionality Manipulation:
Such a vulnerability lets attackers create low-level accounts and hijack functionalities controlling user permissions. This could be a “change role” function, granting unauthorized access to modify or delete sensitive data.
3. System Compromise through Administrative Access:
If attackers gain access to administrative functions through the new user account, they could potentially disrupt services by modifying configurations, manipulating sensitive data, or even taking the entire application down.
4. Weakened Security Posture and Increased Attack Surface:
By exploiting a user’s authenticated session, CSRF vulnerabilities bypass security checks, essentially breaking the application’s trust model. This opens the system to further attacks and exploitation attempts, jeopardizing its overall security.
What is the Current Status?
Upon discovering the vulnerability in PowerAdmin, Astra’s team promptly notified the platform’s developers, providing possible solutions that they could implement to avoid any possible exploitation of user data.
Based on the above, PowerAdmin’s team has released a new update that addressed and patched the CSRF vulnerability.
What Can You Do To Mitigate The Vulnerability?
To mitigate the above vulnerability, update the latest software version, including patches specifically designed to address this issue.
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