This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)
Cross-Site Request Forgery occurrences in Expressway Series
A vulnerability in the FindMe feature of Cisco Expressway Series and Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack and perform arbitrary actions on an affected system. The vulnerability is due to insufficient CSRF protections for the web-based management interface of the affected system. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user of the interface to follow a maliciously crafted link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to perform arbitrary actions on an affected system with the privileges of the user. The arbitrary actions include adding an attacker-controlled device and redirecting calls intended for a specific user. For more information about CSRF attacks and potential mitigations, see Understanding Cross-Site Request Forgery Threat Vectors. This vulnerability is fixed in software version X12.5.1 and later. (2019-04-18, CVE-2019-1722)
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.