A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability has been identified in the W3speedster application W3SPEEDSTER, affecting versions from N/A through 7.19. This vulnerability allows an attacker to perform unauthorized actions on a website on behalf of an authenticated user. This post will delve into the details of the exploit, provide a code snippet showcasing the vulnerability, and include original references to help users identify and mitigate this vulnerability.

Exploit Details

The vulnerability resides in the lack of an effective CSRF validation mechanism in the W3speedster application. This allows an attacker to perform unauthorized actions by tricking a logged-in user into clicking a malicious link or visiting an attacker-controlled website. When visiting the attacker’s site, the user’s browser will automatically perform unauthorized actions on the legitimate website, all without the user’s knowledge.

Code Snippet

Here is a sample code snippet that demonstrates the vulnerability, allowing the attacker to change a victim's email address in the W3speedster application:

<html>
  <body>
    <form action="http://example.com/w3speedster/changeEmail"; method="POST">
      <input type="hidden" name="email" value="attacker@example.com" />
      <input type="submit" value="Click here for a free gift!" />
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

When a user clicks the "Click here for a free gift!" button, the form would submit a change email request to the W3speedster application (in this case, hosted at "example.com"). The victim's email address would be changed to "attacker@example.com," allowing the attacker to gain control of the victim's account.

Mitigation Measures

It is recommended to apply the following mitigation measures to protect against this CSRF vulnerability:

1. Implement an anti-CSRF token mechanism: Include a unique token with each form submission and validate it upon receiving POST requests server-side.
2. Limit privileges of authenticated users: Restrict the actions users can perform on each other's accounts to minimize potential damage.
3. Apply appropriate security headers: Consider employing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to restrict potential attack vectors.

More information about this vulnerability can be found in the original references below

1. CVE Details: https://cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2024-24708/
2. NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD): https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-24708

4. OWASP CSRF Prevention Cheat Sheet: https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Cross-Site_Request_Forgery_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html

Conclusion

This blog post discussed the Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability CVE-2024-24708 found in W3speedster W3SPEEDSTER, which affects versions from N/A through 7.19. By utilizing the code snippet provided and referencing the original sources, users can better understand and protect against this security vulnerability. The mitigation measures listed above can help secure your application against CSRF exploitation and reduce potential risks.

Timeline

Published on: 02/29/2024 01:44:12 UTC
Last modified on: 02/29/2024 13:49:29 UTC