CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2024-34502NVD status: Modified

mediawiki: Cross-Site Request Forgery

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2024-34502 is a critical-severity cross-site request forgery vulnerability in mediawiki, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. The record lists versions 1.39.6, 1.40.2, 1.41.1 as the first without the flaw, so updating mediawiki to one of those releases or later removes the exposure. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.41% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Patch this week

Critical severity: a successful attack would have severe impact.

What to do

  1. Update mediawiki to 1.39.6 or 1.40.2 or 1.41.1, whichever matches your release line, or a later version.
  2. Read the advisory on gerrit.wikimedia.org for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
  3. Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
MediaWikimediawikibefore 1.39.6; 1.40.0 up to, but not including, 1.40.2; 1.41.0 up to, but not including, 1.41.11.39.6, 1.40.2, 1.41.1
Fedora ProjectFedora40Not stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
NoneNo account or login is needed.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CISA (ADP).

Official description

An issue was discovered in WikibaseLexeme in MediaWiki before 1.39.6, 1.40.x before 1.40.2, and 1.41.x before 1.41.1. Loading Special:MergeLexemes will (attempt to) make an edit that merges the from-id to the to-id, even if the request was not a POST request, and even if it does not contain an edit token.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Cross-Site Request Forgery

The web application does not, or cannot, sufficiently verify whether a request was intentionally provided by the user who sent the request, which could have originated from an unauthorized actor.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • 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. Another example is the ESAPI Session Management control, which includes a component for CSRF.
  • Ensure that the application is free of cross-site scripting issues (CWE-79), because most CSRF defenses can be bypassed using attacker-controlled script.
  • Generate a unique nonce for each form, place the nonce into the form, and verify the nonce upon receipt of the form. Be sure that the nonce is not predictable (CWE-330).

More Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities (CWE-352)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: yes, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in mediawiki

All mediawiki vulnerabilities

Recent Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities

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