Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability on Mediabridge Medialink MWN-WAPR300N devices with firmware 5.07.50 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users.
Mediabridge Medialink MWN-WAPR300N devices are vulnerable to a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack, allowing remote attackers to hijack user authentication and potentially gain complete control of the device. This vulnerability, present in firmware version 5.07.50, could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, and network compromise.
Step 1: Victim Login: A legitimate user logs into the web interface of the Mediabridge device using their credentials.
Step 2: Attacker Crafting: The attacker crafts a malicious HTML page or email containing a hidden form or JavaScript code designed to send a specific HTTP request to the vulnerable device. This request will typically modify settings or perform administrative actions.
Step 3: Victim Interaction: The victim, while still logged into the Mediabridge device, visits the attacker's malicious webpage or opens the malicious email. This triggers the hidden form submission or JavaScript execution.
Step 4: Request Execution: The victim's browser, unaware of the malicious intent, automatically sends the crafted HTTP request to the Mediabridge device. Because the device lacks CSRF protection, it processes the request as if it originated from the legitimate user.
Step 5: Device Compromise: The Mediabridge device executes the attacker's commands, potentially allowing the attacker to change the device's configuration, gain administrative access, or perform other malicious actions.
The root cause of CVE-2015-5996 is the lack of proper CSRF protection mechanisms within the web interface of the Mediabridge device. Specifically, the device's web application fails to validate the origin of requests, allowing an attacker to craft malicious requests that are executed by a logged-in user's browser. This flaw stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or other validation techniques, enabling attackers to trick users into performing actions they did not intend, such as changing device settings or gaining administrative access. The vulnerability resides in the device's handling of HTTP requests, where it does not verify the source of the request before processing it. This allows an attacker to create a malicious webpage or email containing a hidden form that, when submitted by a logged-in user, performs unauthorized actions on the device.