Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2021-31760

CVE-2021-31760:
Webmin vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

Webmin version 1.973 was discovered to be vulnerable to a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack that could lead to Remote Command Execution (RCE) through the application's running process feature. The vulnerability was identified and disclosed in April 2021 (NVD). Webmin, being a web-based system administration tool for Unix-like servers with over 1,000,000 installations worldwide, made this vulnerability particularly significant (GitHub Webmin).

Technical details

The vulnerability received a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (HIGH), with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. This indicates that the vulnerability can be exploited remotely, requires low attack complexity, needs no privileges, but does require user interaction. The vulnerability was classified under CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery) (NVD).

Impact

The successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow attackers to execute remote commands on the affected system, potentially leading to complete system compromise. Given Webmin's administrative capabilities, including the ability to configure operating system internals, users, services, and various server applications, the impact of this vulnerability is particularly severe (GitHub Webmin).

Mitigation and workarounds

Users running Webmin 1.973 should upgrade to a patched version of the software. The vulnerability was discovered in the running process feature, and proper CSRF protections should be implemented to prevent unauthorized command execution (GitHub Webmin).