This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)
Cross-Site Request Forgery occurrences in Big-ip Local Traffic Manager
In all versions, BIG-IP and BIG-IQ are vulnerable to cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks through iControl SOAP. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated. (2022-12-07, CVE-2022-41622)
On all versions of 16.1.x, 15.1.x, 14.1.x, 13.1.x, 12.1.x, and 11.6.x of F5 BIG-IP (fixed in 17.0.0), a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability exists in an undisclosed page of the BIG-IP Configuration utility. This vulnerability allows an attacker to run a limited set of commands: ping, traceroute, and WOM diagnostics. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated (2022-05-05, CVE-2022-1389)
BIG-IP version 16.0.x before 16.0.1.2, 15.1.x before 15.1.3, 14.1.x before 14.1.4.2, 13.1.x before 13.1.4.1, and all versions of 12.1.x and 11.6.x and all versions of BIG-IQ 8.x, 7.x, and 6.x are vulnerable to cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks through iControl SOAP. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated. (2021-09-14, CVE-2021-23026)
In BIG-IP versions 15.0.0-15.1.0.4, 14.1.0-14.1.2.6, 13.1.0-13.1.3.3, 12.1.0-12.1.5.1, and 11.6.1-11.6.5.2, iControl REST does not implement Cross Site Request Forgery protections for users which make use of Basic Authentication in a web browser. (2020-08-26, CVE-2020-5922)
In BIG-IP versions 15.0.0-15.1.0.3, 14.1.0-14.1.2.5, 13.1.0-13.1.3.3, 12.1.0-12.1.5.1, a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI), also referred to as the Configuration utility, exists in an undisclosed page. (2020-07-01, CVE-2020-5904)
Why Cross-Site Request Forgery can be dangerous
The absence of Anti-CSRF tokens may lead to a Cross-Site Request Forgery attack that can result in executing a specific application action as another logged in user, e.g. steal their account by changing their email and password or silently adding a new admin user account when executed from the administrator account.
The attacker may copy one of your web application forms, e.g. email/password change form.
The webpage will contain a form with the exact set of fields as the original application but with input values already provided and the submit button replaced with a Javascript code causing auto-submission. When the page is accessed the form will be immediately submitted and page contents replaced with a valid content or a redirect to your original application.
One of your application users who is already logged in can be then tricked to navigate to such malicious page e.g. by clicking a link in a phishing email, and the pre-populated form content will be submitted to your application like it would be submitted by your user.