CVE-2024-55921

TYPO3 is a free and open source Content Management Framework. A vulnerability has been identified in the backend user interface functionality involving deep links. Specifically, this functionality is susceptible to Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). Additionally, state-changing actions in downstream components incorrectly accepted submissions via HTTP GET and did not enforce the appropriate HTTP method. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires the victim to have an active session on the backend user interface and to be deceived into interacting with a malicious URL targeting the backend, which can occur under the following conditions: The user opens a malicious link, such as one sent via email. The user visits a compromised or manipulated website while the following settings are misconfigured: 1. security.backend.enforceReferrer feature is disabled, 2. BE/cookieSameSite configuration is set to lax or none. The vulnerability in the affected downstream component “Extension Manager Module” allows attackers to retrieve and install 3rd party extensions from the TYPO3 Extension Repository - which can lead to remote code execution in the worst case. Users are advised to update to TYPO3 versions 11.5.42 ELTS, 12.4.25 LTS, 13.4.3 LTS which fix the problem described.

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.

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]

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/111.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/462.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/467.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/62.html

References

• https://github.com/TYPO3/typo3/security/advisories/GHSA-4g52-pq8j-6qv5
• https://typo3.org/security/advisory/typo3-core-sa-2025-006