Understanding and Mitigating CVE-2024-7645: Cross-Site Request Forgery in Clinics Patient Management System
Overview of CVE-2024-7645
The cybersecurity community has identified a new vulnerability in the SourceCodester Clinics Patient Management System, version 1.0. The vulnerability, cataloged as CVE-2024-7645, pertains to a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) issue located within the users.php file on the User Page component. This vulnerability has been classified as problematic due to its potential impact on data integrity and user privacy. Exploits for this vulnerability have already been disclosed publicly, increasing the risk for targeted attacks.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from the insufficient validation of incoming requests in the users.php file. An attacker can exploit this flaw by tricking an authenticated user into making an unauthorized request to the web server where the Clinics Patient Management System is hosted. This can result in unauthorized actions being carried out under the account of the authenticated user, such as changing user details or accessing restricted functionalities.
The vulnerability is identified under the Common Weakness Enumeration as CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). The CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) scores for this vulnerability are as follows:
- CVSSv4.0: Base Score 6.9 (MEDIUM)
- CVSSv3.1: Base Score 4.3 (MEDIUM)
- CVSSv2.0: Base Score 5.0 (MEDIUM)
Mitigation Strategies
Mitigation of CVE-2024-7645 involves several steps that require immediate attention:
- Implement Anti-CSRF Tokens: Ensure that all forms and state-changing requests include unique anti-CSRF tokens that validate the authenticity of the requests.
- Validate Referrers: Configure the application to validate the HTTP referrer header to ensure that requests are originating from the legitimate site.
- Enforce GET/POST Separation: Ensure that side-effect-free actions are carried out through GET requests, while all state-changing actions are restricted to POST requests.
- Update Software: Check for any patches or updates from SourceCodester addressing this vulnerability and apply them promptly.
Organizations should integrate these mitigation strategies into their security policies and provide regular training to developers and users about secure coding practices and how to identify potential CSRF attacks.
Conclusion
The CVE-2024-7645 vulnerability in the SourceCodester Clinics Patient Management System underscores the necessity of robust security measures to protect web applications from CSRF attacks. By understanding the nature of this vulnerability and implementing the recommended mitigation strategies, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of such attacks, thereby safeguarding sensitive patient data and maintaining the integrity of their systems.
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