LedgerSMB is a free web-based double-entry accounting system. When a LedgerSMB database administrator has an active session in /setup.pl, an attacker can trick the admin into clicking on a link which automatically submits a request to setup.pl without the admins consent. This request can be used to create a new user account with full application (/login.pl) privileges, leading to privilege escalation. The vulnerability is patched in versions 1.10.30 and 1.11.9.
Weakness
The web application does not, or can not, sufficiently verify whether a well-formed, valid, consistent request was intentionally provided by the user who submitted the request.
Affected Software
| Name |
Vendor |
Start Version |
End Version |
| Ledgersmb |
Ledgersmb |
1.3.0 (including) |
1.10.30 (excluding) |
| Ledgersmb |
Ledgersmb |
1.11.0 (including) |
1.11.9 (excluding) |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
bionic |
* |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
esm-apps/focal |
* |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
esm-apps/jammy |
* |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
focal |
* |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
jammy |
* |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
mantic |
* |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
trusty |
* |
| Ledgersmb |
Ubuntu |
xenial |
* |
Potential Mitigations
- Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
- For example, use anti-CSRF packages such as the OWASP CSRFGuard. [REF-330]
- Another example is the ESAPI Session Management control, which includes a component for CSRF. [REF-45]
- Use the “double-submitted cookie” method as described by Felten and Zeller:
- When a user visits a site, the site should generate a pseudorandom value and set it as a cookie on the user’s machine. The site should require every form submission to include this value as a form value and also as a cookie value. When a POST request is sent to the site, the request should only be considered valid if the form value and the cookie value are the same.
- Because of the same-origin policy, an attacker cannot read or modify the value stored in the cookie. To successfully submit a form on behalf of the user, the attacker would have to correctly guess the pseudorandom value. If the pseudorandom value is cryptographically strong, this will be prohibitively difficult.
- This technique requires Javascript, so it may not work for browsers that have Javascript disabled. [REF-331]
References