CVE-2018-25168: Precurio Intranet Portal CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2018-25168 Overview

CVE-2018-25168 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting Precurio Intranet Portal 2.0. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to create administrative user accounts by submitting crafted POST requests. Attackers can forge requests to the /public/admin/user/submitnew endpoint with user creation parameters to add new admin accounts without requiring CSRF tokens or user interaction.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can create administrative accounts, leading to complete compromise of the intranet portal and potential unauthorized access to sensitive corporate data.

Affected Products

• Precurio Intranet Portal 2.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-06 - CVE CVE-2018-25168 published to NVD
• 2026-03-09 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2018-25168

Vulnerability Analysis

This CSRF vulnerability exists due to the absence of anti-CSRF token validation on the administrative user creation endpoint. The /public/admin/user/submitnew endpoint accepts POST requests for creating new user accounts but fails to verify that requests originate from legitimate authenticated sessions within the application.

When an authenticated administrator visits a malicious webpage or clicks a crafted link, the attacker-controlled page can submit a forged POST request to the vulnerable endpoint. Because browsers automatically include session cookies with cross-origin requests, and the application lacks CSRF protection mechanisms, the server processes the malicious request as if it were a legitimate action by the administrator.

The vulnerability enables complete administrative account creation, allowing attackers to establish persistent backdoor access to the intranet portal.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the lack of CSRF token implementation on state-changing endpoints in Precurio Intranet Portal 2.0. The application does not generate or validate anti-CSRF tokens for the user creation functionality, allowing attackers to craft malicious requests that bypass same-origin policy protections when executed in the context of an authenticated user's browser session.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, requiring an attacker to lure an authenticated administrator to a malicious webpage. The attack flow involves:

1. Attacker crafts a malicious HTML page containing a hidden form targeting the /public/admin/user/submitnew endpoint
2. The form contains parameters specifying a new administrative user's credentials
3. When an authenticated Precurio administrator visits the attacker's page, JavaScript automatically submits the form
4. The victim's browser sends the forged request with valid session cookies
5. The Precurio server creates the new admin account, granting the attacker persistent access

The vulnerability is documented in publicly available references. For technical details and proof-of-concept information, see the Exploit-DB #45860 entry and the VulnCheck Advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2018-25168

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected administrative user accounts appearing in the Precurio user management console
• User creation events in application logs originating from unusual referrer headers or lacking expected referrer values
• Multiple admin account creations in a short timeframe without corresponding legitimate administrative activity

Detection Strategies

• Monitor HTTP access logs for POST requests to /public/admin/user/submitnew with external or suspicious referrer headers
• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block requests to sensitive endpoints lacking proper origin validation
• Audit application logs for user creation events and correlate with administrator login sessions

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for all administrative actions in Precurio Intranet Portal
• Configure alerts for new administrative account creation events
• Regularly review and audit the list of administrative users for unauthorized accounts

How to Mitigate CVE-2018-25168

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to Precurio Intranet Portal administrative interfaces to trusted IP ranges
• Implement a web application firewall (WAF) with CSRF protection rules in front of the portal
• Audit existing administrative accounts and remove any unauthorized entries
• Train administrators to be cautious of clicking links while logged into the portal

Patch Information

No vendor patch information is currently available in the CVE data. Organizations should contact the Precurio vendor directly for security updates or consider alternative intranet portal solutions. For additional context, refer to the VulnCheck Advisory.

Workarounds

• Deploy a reverse proxy or WAF to add CSRF token validation at the network layer
• Implement custom security middleware to validate Origin and Referer headers for state-changing requests
• Use browser isolation for administrative tasks to limit CSRF exposure
• Consider deploying additional authentication factors for administrative actions

# Example WAF rule to block suspicious requests (ModSecurity)
# Block POST to user creation endpoint without valid Referer
SecRule REQUEST_METHOD "POST" "id:100001,phase:2,chain,deny,status:403,msg:'CSRF Protection - Suspicious Admin Request'"
SecRule REQUEST_URI "/public/admin/user/submitnew" "chain"
SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:Referer "!@contains /admin/"