An issue was discovered in Mahara before 15.04.14, 16.x before 16.04.8, 16.10.x before 16.10.5, and 17.x before 17.04.3. When one closes the browser without logging out of Mahara, the value in the usr_session table is not removed. If someone were to open a browser, visit the Mahara site, and adjust the mahara cookie to the old value, they can get access to the users account.
Authenticating a user, or otherwise establishing a new user session, without invalidating any existing session identifier gives an attacker the opportunity to steal authenticated sessions.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04-rc1 (including) | 15.04-rc1 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04-rc2 (including) | 15.04-rc2 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.0 (including) | 15.04.0 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.1 (including) | 15.04.1 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.2 (including) | 15.04.2 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.3 (including) | 15.04.3 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.4 (including) | 15.04.4 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.5 (including) | 15.04.5 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.6 (including) | 15.04.6 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.7 (including) | 15.04.7 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.8 (including) | 15.04.8 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.9 (including) | 15.04.9 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.10 (including) | 15.04.10 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.11 (including) | 15.04.11 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.12 (including) | 15.04.12 (including) |
| Mahara | Mahara | 15.04.13 (including) | 15.04.13 (including) |
Such a scenario is commonly observed when:
In the generic exploit of session fixation vulnerabilities, an attacker creates a new session on a web application and records the associated session identifier. The attacker then causes the victim to associate, and possibly authenticate, against the server using that session identifier, giving the attacker access to the user’s account through the active session.