CVE-2020-25263
📋 TL;DR
This CSRF vulnerability in PyroCMS allows attackers to trick authenticated admin users into unknowingly deleting arbitrary plugins via a malicious link or webpage. It affects PyroCMS 3.7 installations with admin access enabled, potentially disrupting website functionality by removing critical components.
💻 Affected Systems
- PyroCMS
📦 What is this software?
Pyrocms by Pyrocms
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers delete essential plugins, causing complete website functionality loss, data corruption, or service disruption requiring full restoration from backups.
Likely Case
Malicious actors delete non-critical plugins, causing partial functionality loss, broken features, or requiring plugin reinstallation and configuration.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections, the attack fails, and no plugin deletion occurs, maintaining system integrity.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires tricking authenticated admin users; public proof-of-concept demonstrates the CSRF attack vector.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 3.8 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/pyrocms/pyrocms
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Update PyroCMS to version 3.8 or later. 2. Verify the update via the admin panel. 3. Test plugin management functionality.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement CSRF Tokens
allAdd CSRF protection to the vulnerable endpoint manually if patching is delayed.
Modify the vulnerable controller to include CSRF token validation
Restrict Admin Access
allLimit admin panel access to trusted IP addresses only.
Configure web server (e.g., Apache .htaccess or Nginx config) to restrict /admin/* paths to specific IPs
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network segmentation to isolate the PyroCMS instance from untrusted networks.
- Use browser extensions that block CSRF attempts and educate admin users about phishing risks.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if running PyroCMS version 3.7; inspect the admin/addons/uninstall/anomaly.module.blocks endpoint for missing CSRF protection.Check Version:
Check the PyroCMS admin dashboard or inspect the composer.json file for version information.Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm PyroCMS version is 3.8 or later; test the vulnerable endpoint with a CSRF attempt to ensure it fails.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to /admin/addons/uninstall/anomaly.module.blocks without referrer validation
- Multiple plugin deletion events from single admin session
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests to the vulnerable endpoint without CSRF tokens from unexpected sources
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND uri="/admin/addons/uninstall/anomaly.module.blocks" AND method="POST" AND NOT csrf_token=*