This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)
Cross-Site Request Forgery occurrences in Iot Field Network Director
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco IoT Field Network Director (IoT-FND) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack and alter the data of existing users and groups on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insufficient CSRF protections for the web-based management interface on an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user of the interface to follow a malicious link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to perform arbitrary actions with the privilege level of the affected user. If the user has administrative privileges, the attacker could create a new, privileged account to obtain full control over the device interface. This vulnerability affects Connected Grid Network Management System, if running a software release prior to IoT-FND Release 3.0; and IoT Field Network Director, if running a software release prior to IoT-FND Release 4.1.1-6 or 4.2.0-123. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvi02448. (2018-05-17, CVE-2018-0270)
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.