This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)
Cross-Site Request Forgery occurrences in Freeswitch
FreeSWITCH through 1.8.2, when mod_xml_rpc is enabled, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via the api/system or txtapi/system (or api/bg_system or txtapi/bg_system) query string on TCP port 8080, as demonstrated by an api/system?calc URI. This can also be exploited via CSRF. Alternatively, the default password of works for the freeswitch account can sometimes be used. (2018-12-06, CVE-2018-19911)
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.