CVE-2023-41879 – This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attac... (How to Fix)

Q: What is the severity of CVE-2023-41879?

CVE-2023-41879 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH). This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to view guest orders in Magento LTS by brute-forcing a 6-character hexadecimal 'protect_code' value stored in a 'guest-view' cookie. All Magento LTS installations running vulnerable versions are affected, potentially exposing customer order information including personal and payment details.

📋 TL;DR

This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to view guest orders in Magento LTS by brute-forcing a 6-character hexadecimal 'protect_code' value stored in a 'guest-view' cookie. All Magento LTS installations running vulnerable versions are affected, potentially exposing customer order information including personal and payment details.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:

OpenMage Magento LTS

Versions: All versions before 19.5.1 and 20.1.1

Operating Systems: All

Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes

Notes: Only affects guest orders (orders placed without customer accounts). The vulnerability exists in the default configuration.

📦 What is this software?

Magento by Openmage

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Magento by Openmage

View all CVEs affecting Magento →

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Attackers could systematically brute-force all guest order protect codes, exposing all guest order data including customer names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and potentially partial payment information.

🟠

Likely Case

Targeted attacks against specific guest orders to harvest customer personal information for phishing, fraud, or identity theft purposes.

🟢

If Mitigated

With proper rate limiting and monitoring, brute-force attempts would be detected and blocked before significant data exposure occurs.

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH

🏢 Internal Only: LOW

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No

Weaponized: LIKELY

Unauthenticated Exploit: ⚠️ Yes

Complexity: LOW

The exploit requires brute-forcing a 6-character hexadecimal code (16^6 = 16,777,216 possibilities), which is feasible with automated tools. Each order requires separate brute-force attempts.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: 19.5.1 or 20.1.1

Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/security/advisories/GHSA-9358-cpvx-c2qp

Restart Required: No

Instructions:

1. Backup your Magento installation and database. 2. Update to version 19.5.1 (for Magento 1.x) or 20.1.1 (for Magento 2.x) using composer: 'composer require openmage/magento-lts:19.5.1' or 'composer require openmage/magento-lts:20.1.1'. 3. Clear cache: 'php bin/magento cache:clean' (Magento 2) or delete var/cache/* (Magento 1). 4. Verify the update completed successfully.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Rate Limit Guest Order Access

all

Implement rate limiting on guest order viewing endpoints to prevent brute-force attacks

Configure web server rate limiting (e.g., nginx: limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=guestview:10m rate=10r/m;)
Add application-level rate limiting in .htaccess or web.config

Disable Guest Checkout

all

Require customer accounts for all orders to eliminate guest order exposure

Magento Admin: Stores > Configuration > Sales > Checkout > Allow Guest Checkout > No

🧯 If You Can't Patch

Implement strict rate limiting on /sales/guest/view/ and similar guest order endpoints
Monitor logs for excessive requests to guest order viewing functionality and block suspicious IPs

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check if your Magento version is below 19.5.1 (for Magento 1.x) or below 20.1.1 (for Magento 2.x). Test if guest orders can be accessed with manipulated protect_code values.

Check Version:

For Magento 1.x: check app/Mage.php version. For Magento 2.x: 'php bin/magento --version' or check composer.json

Verify Fix Applied:

After patching, verify the version is 19.5.1 or higher (Magento 1.x) or 20.1.1 or higher (Magento 2.x). Test that guest order access now requires proper authentication or uses stronger protect_code validation.

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

Multiple failed attempts to access /sales/guest/view/ with different protect_code values
Rapid sequential requests to guest order endpoints from single IPs
Unusual patterns of guest order access outside normal business hours

Network Indicators:

High volume of requests to guest order viewing URLs
Patterns of incremental or sequential parameter values in requests

SIEM Query:

source="web_access_logs" AND (url_path="/sales/guest/view/" OR url_path="/sales/order/view/") AND status=200 | stats count by src_ip, user_agent | where count > 50

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2023-41879

CVSS v3 Score: 7.5 (HIGH)

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CWE: CWE-330

Published: September 11, 2023

Last Updated: November 21, 2024

🔗 References

https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/commit/2a2a2fb504247e8966f8ffc2e17d614be5d43128 Patch
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/commit/31e74ac5d670b10001f88f038046b62367f15877 Patch
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/releases/tag/v19.5.1 Release Notes
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/releases/tag/v20.1.1 Release Notes
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/security/advisories/GHSA-9358-cpvx-c2qp Exploit,Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/commit/2a2a2fb504247e8966f8ffc2e17d614be5d43128 Patch
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/commit/31e74ac5d670b10001f88f038046b62367f15877 Patch
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/releases/tag/v19.5.1 Release Notes
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/releases/tag/v20.1.1 Release Notes
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/security/advisories/GHSA-9358-cpvx-c2qp Exploit,Third Party Advisory

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