CVE-2023-37649: Incorrect Access Control in Cockpit CMS v2.5.2 Component /models/Content – Unauthorized Data Access

Cockpit CMS is a powerful content management system (CMS) built on top of the PHP-Lite framework, perfect for developers looking for a simple and modern way to manage their website content. However, a critical vulnerability has been discovered in Cockpit CMS v2.5.2, identified as CVE-2023-37649, which allows unauthorized attackers to access sensitive data. This post explores the details of this vulnerability, including a code snippet, links to original references, and exploit details.

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability arises from incorrect access control implemented in the /models/Content component of Cockpit CMS v2.5.2. Unauthorized attackers can exploit this vulnerability to access sensitive data, such as user contact information or private content, which could lead to various types of attacks, including phishing, defamation, or unauthorized data manipulation.

The issue occurs due to the lack of appropriate checks on incoming requests to /models/Content, resulting in insufficient restriction of access to the component.

Here is a code snippet illustrating the vulnerable function in /models/Content.php

public function getContent() {
    $data = $this->find();
    return $data;
}

As we can see, there are no access control checks in this method, allowing unauthorized users to access any content.

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending the following HTTP request to the target

GET /models/Content/?filter[type]=private HTTP/1.1
Host: [TARGET]
User-Agent: Mozilla/5. (Windows NT 10.; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103..3626.121 Safari/537.36
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=.9,*/*;q=.8
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
Connection: keep-alive
Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1

In the above HTTP request, an attacker specifically targets private content by modifying the filter[type]=private query parameter in the URL. This would return all the private content stored in the /models/Content component without any authentication, leading to unauthorized data access.

Mitigation

To mitigate this vulnerability, developers should implement proper access control checks for incoming requests to /models/Content within Cockpit CMS. This can involve checking the user's session and ensuring that the user has appropriate permissions to access the content being requested.

In addition, users of Cockpit CMS v2.5.2 should keep a lookout for security updates and patches from the developers addressing this issue and apply them as soon as they become available.

Original References

- CVE-2023-37649 - MITRE's Official CVE Entry
- Cockpit CMS v2.5.2 - Official GitHub Repository

Conclusion

The discovery of this vulnerability highlights the importance of implementing appropriate access control mechanisms in web applications, particularly content management systems like Cockpit CMS, which often store sensitive information. By understanding the cause of the vulnerability, developers can take proactive steps to address the issue and prevent unauthorized data access and potential attacks. Stay vigilant and always prioritize security when developing and maintaining web applications.

Timeline

Published on: 07/20/2023 20:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 07/26/2023 16:18:00 UTC