CVE-2019-14836
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2019-14836 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the 3scale developer portal login mechanism. This allows attackers to trick authenticated users into performing unintended actions, potentially accessing unauthorized information or conducting further attacks. Organizations using vulnerable versions of 3scale's developer portal are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Red Hat 3scale API Management
📦 What is this software?
3scale by Redhat
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could gain unauthorized access to sensitive developer portal data, modify configurations, or use the compromised portal as a foothold for lateral movement within the network.
Likely Case
Attackers could access user-specific information, modify user settings, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users without their consent.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections implemented, login requests would require valid tokens, preventing unauthorized actions even if users are tricked into clicking malicious links.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires tricking an authenticated user into clicking a malicious link while logged into the developer portal. No authentication bypass is involved.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 3scale API Management 2.8
Vendor Advisory: https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2019-14836
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update to 3scale API Management 2.8 or later. 2. Apply the security update through your package manager. 3. Restart the 3scale services. 4. Verify the fix by testing login CSRF protections.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement CSRF Tokens Manually
allAdd CSRF protection tokens to login forms and validate them server-side
Custom implementation required - modify login form to include CSRF token and add server-side validation
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network segmentation to isolate the developer portal from untrusted networks
- Use web application firewalls (WAF) with CSRF protection rules enabled
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if your 3scale version is 2.6 or 2.7 and test login forms for CSRF protection by attempting to submit login requests without proper tokensCheck Version:
oc get pods -n 3scale | grep system-app | awk '{print $1}' | xargs oc rsh -n 3scale cat /opt/rh/rh-ruby25/root/usr/share/gems/gems/3scale-backend*/VERSIONVerify Fix Applied:
After updating to version 2.8+, verify that login forms include CSRF tokens and that login requests fail without valid tokens📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple failed login attempts with missing or invalid CSRF tokens
- Login requests from unexpected referrers or origins
Network Indicators:
- HTTP POST requests to login endpoints without proper CSRF headers
- Requests with mismatched Origin/Referer headers
SIEM Query:
source="3scale-logs" AND (message="login failed" OR message="invalid authenticity token")