Vulnerabilities > CVE-2016-6893 - Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in GNU Mailman

047910
CVSS 6.8 - MEDIUM
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
MEDIUM
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
PARTIAL
Integrity impact
PARTIAL
Availability impact
PARTIAL
network
gnu
CWE-352
nessus

Summary

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the user options page in GNU Mailman 2.1.x before 2.1.23 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that modify an option, as demonstrated by gaining access to the credentials of a victim's account.

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • JSON Hijacking (aka JavaScript Hijacking)
    An attacker targets a system that uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) as a transport mechanism between the client and the server (common in Web 2.0 systems using AJAX) to steal possibly confidential information transmitted from the server back to the client inside the JSON object by taking advantage of the loophole in the browser's Same Origin Policy that does not prohibit JavaScript from one website to be included and executed in the context of another website. An attacker gets the victim to visit his or her malicious page that contains a script tag whose source points to the vulnerable system with a URL that requests a response from the server containing a JSON object with possibly confidential information. The malicious page also contains malicious code to capture the JSON object returned by the server before any other processing on it can take place, typically by overriding the JavaScript function used to create new objects. This hook allows the malicious code to get access to the creation of each object and transmit the possibly sensitive contents of the captured JSON object to the attackers' server. There is nothing in the browser's security model to prevent the attackers' malicious JavaScript code (originating from attacker's domain) to set up an environment (as described above) to intercept a JSON object response (coming from the vulnerable target system's domain), read its contents and transmit to the attackers' controlled site. The same origin policy protects the domain object model (DOM), but not the JSON.
  • Cross-Domain Search Timing
    An attacker initiates cross domain HTTP / GET requests and times the server responses. The timing of these responses may leak important information on what is happening on the server. Browser's same origin policy prevents the attacker from directly reading the server responses (in the absence of any other weaknesses), but does not prevent the attacker from timing the responses to requests that the attacker issued cross domain. For GET requests an attacker could for instance leverage the "img" tag in conjunction with "onload() / onerror()" javascript events. For the POST requests, an attacker could leverage the "iframe" element and leverage the "onload()" event. There is nothing in the current browser security model that prevents an attacker to use these methods to time responses to the attackers' cross domain requests. The timing for these responses leaks information. For instance, if a victim has an active session with their online e-mail account, an attacker could issue search requests in the victim's mailbox. While the attacker is not able to view the responses, based on the timings of the responses, the attacker could ask yes / no questions as to the content of victim's e-mails, who the victim e-mailed, when, etc. This is but one example; There are other scenarios where an attacker could infer potentially sensitive information from cross domain requests by timing the responses while asking the right questions that leak information.
  • Cross Site Identification
    An attacker harvests identifying information about a victim via an active session that the victim's browser has with a social networking site. A victim may have the social networking site open in one tab or perhaps is simply using the "remember me" feature to keep his or her session with the social networking site active. An attacker induces a payload to execute in the victim's browser that transparently to the victim initiates a request to the social networking site (e.g., via available social network site APIs) to retrieve identifying information about a victim. While some of this information may be public, the attacker is able to harvest this information in context and may use it for further attacks on the user (e.g., spear phishing). In one example of an attack, an attacker may post a malicious posting that contains an image with an embedded link. The link actually requests identifying information from the social networking site. A victim who views the malicious posting in his or her browser will have sent identifying information to the attacker, as long as the victim had an active session with the social networking site. There are many other ways in which the attacker may get the payload to execute in the victim's browser mainly by finding a way to hide it in some reputable site that the victim visits. The attacker could also send the link to the victim in an e-mail and trick the victim into clicking on the link. This attack is basically a cross site request forgery attack with two main differences. First, there is no action that is performed on behalf of the user aside from harvesting information. So standard CSRF protection may not work in this situation. Second, what is important in this attack pattern is the nature of the data being harvested, which is identifying information that can be obtained and used in context. This real time harvesting of identifying information can be used as a prelude for launching real time targeted social engineering attacks on the victim.
  • Cross Site Request Forgery (aka Session Riding)
    An attacker crafts malicious web links and distributes them (via web pages, email, etc.), typically in a targeted manner, hoping to induce users to click on the link and execute the malicious action against some third-party application. If successful, the action embedded in the malicious link will be processed and accepted by the targeted application with the users' privilege level. This type of attack leverages the persistence and implicit trust placed in user session cookies by many web applications today. In such an architecture, once the user authenticates to an application and a session cookie is created on the user's system, all following transactions for that session are authenticated using that cookie including potential actions initiated by an attacker and simply "riding" the existing session cookie.

Nessus

  • NASL familyUbuntu Local Security Checks
    NASL idUBUNTU_USN-3118-1.NASL
    descriptionIt was discovered that the Mailman administrative web interface did not protect against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks. If an authenticated user were tricked into visiting a malicious website while logged into Mailman, a remote attacker could perform administrative actions. This issue only affected Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. (CVE-2016-7123) Nishant Agarwala discovered that the Mailman user options page did not protect against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks. If an authenticated user were tricked into visiting a malicious website while logged into Mailman, a remote attacker could modify user options. (CVE-2016-6893). Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id94467
    published2016-11-02
    reporterUbuntu Security Notice (C) 2016-2019 Canonical, Inc. / NASL script (C) 2016-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/94467
    titleUbuntu 12.04 LTS / 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 16.10 : mailman vulnerabilities (USN-3118-1)
  • NASL familySuSE Local Security Checks
    NASL idSUSE_SU-2018-4296-1.NASL
    descriptionThis update for mailman fixes the following security vulnerabilities : Fixed a XSS vulnerability and information leak in user options CGI, which could be used to execute arbitrary scripts in the user
    last seen2020-03-24
    modified2018-12-31
    plugin id119955
    published2018-12-31
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/119955
    titleSUSE SLES12 Security Update : mailman (SUSE-SU-2018:4296-1)
  • NASL familyFedora Local Security Checks
    NASL idFEDORA_2018-55B7018374.NASL
    descriptionFix for CVE-2016-6893 ---- Security fix for CVE-2018-5950 Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora update system website. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.
    last seen2020-06-05
    modified2018-03-19
    plugin id108424
    published2018-03-19
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/108424
    titleFedora 27 : 3:mailman (2018-55b7018374)
  • NASL familySuSE Local Security Checks
    NASL idSUSE_SU-2019-13924-1.NASL
    descriptionThis update for mailman fixes the following issues : Fixed a XSS vulnerability and information leak in user options CGI, which could be used to execute arbitrary scripts in the user
    last seen2020-03-18
    modified2019-01-08
    plugin id121005
    published2019-01-08
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/121005
    titleSUSE SLES11 Security Update : mailman (SUSE-SU-2019:13924-1)
  • NASL familyFedora Local Security Checks
    NASL idFEDORA_2018-4A699532D3.NASL
    descriptionNew version 2.1.26 (#1370156, #1304360) Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora update system website. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.
    last seen2020-06-05
    modified2019-01-03
    plugin id120397
    published2019-01-03
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/120397
    titleFedora 28 : 3:mailman (2018-4a699532d3)
  • NASL familyDebian Local Security Checks
    NASL idDEBIAN_DSA-3668.NASL
    descriptionIt was discovered that there was a CSRF vulnerability in mailman, a web-based mailing list manager, which could allow an attacker to obtain a user
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id93547
    published2016-09-16
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2016-2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/93547
    titleDebian DSA-3668-1 : mailman - security update
  • NASL familyAmazon Linux Local Security Checks
    NASL idALA_ALAS-2018-985.NASL
    descriptionCross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in web UI A cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw was found in mailman. An attacker, able to trick the user into visiting a specific URL, can execute arbitrary web scripts on the user
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id108848
    published2018-04-06
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/108848
    titleAmazon Linux AMI : mailman (ALAS-2018-985)
  • NASL familyDebian Local Security Checks
    NASL idDEBIAN_DLA-608.NASL
    descriptionIt was discovered that there was a CSRF vulnerability in mailman, a web-based mailing list manager, which could allow an attacker to obtain a user
    last seen2020-03-17
    modified2016-09-06
    plugin id93320
    published2016-09-06
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2016-2020 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/93320
    titleDebian DLA-608-1 : mailman security update
  • NASL familySuSE Local Security Checks
    NASL idSUSE_SU-2018-1638-1.NASL
    descriptionThis update for mailman to version 2.1.15 fixes the following issues : - CVE-2016-6893: Prevent cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the user options page that allowed remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that modify an option (bsc#995352). - Various other hardenings against CSFR attacks For details please see https://launchpad.net/mailman/+milestone/2.1.15 Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id110473
    published2018-06-12
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/110473
    titleSUSE SLES11 Security Update : mailman (SUSE-SU-2018:1638-1)
  • NASL familyFreeBSD Local Security Checks
    NASL idFREEBSD_PKG_B11AB01B6E1911E6AB24080027EF73EC.NASL
    descriptionMark Sapiro reports : CSRF protection has been extended to the user options page. This was actually fixed by Tokio Kikuchi as part of the fix for LP : #775294 and intended for Mailman 2.1.15, but that fix wasn
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id93211
    published2016-08-30
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2016-2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/93211
    titleFreeBSD : mailman -- CSRF protection enhancements (b11ab01b-6e19-11e6-ab24-080027ef73ec)
  • NASL familySuSE Local Security Checks
    NASL idSUSE_SU-2019-14068-1.NASL
    descriptionThis update for mailman fixes the following issues : Security issue fixed : CVE-2016-6893: Fixed a Cross-site request forgery vulnerability in the admin web interface (bsc#997205). Following bug was fixed: Allow CSRF check to pass in mailman web frontend if the list name contains a
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id125678
    published2019-06-03
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/125678
    titleSUSE SLES11 Security Update : mailman (SUSE-SU-2019:14068-1)