In the fast-moving world of job boards, 74cmsSE has gained a strong following due to its open-source nature and active development. But with popularity comes threats—and in late 2022, a serious vulnerability surfaced that could allow nearly any admin on your 74cmsSE v3.12. site to become the highest-level “Super Administrator” and take over your system.

This exploit has been cataloged as CVE-2022-41471. In this guide, I’ll break down how the vulnerability works, who’s at risk, and show you a simple code example that demonstrates the core problem—plus, I’ll give you direct references if you want to go deeper.

What Is 74cmsSE?

74cmsSE is a PHP-based job recruitment management system used widely by HR departments, recruiters, and even schools. It uses a role-based admin panel with different permission levels. The 'Super Administrator' account has all powers, including user control, backend edits, and config changes.

The Flaw in a Nutshell

CVE-2022-41471 allows any authenticated user with _any_ level of admin access (even the lowest!) to alter the rights and password credentials of the Super Administrator. This effectively grants them total control over the application.

How does it happen?
The issue lies in missing or improper validation checks when processing privilege-modification requests in the admin panel. An attacker can craft specific requests that update the rights of any user—including the Super Admin—by abusing poorly secured endpoints.

Attacker logs in as a low-privilege admin.

2. Attacker crafts or intercepts a POST request to the user-editing endpoint, supplying the Super Admin’s user ID and new credentials (e.g., password or permissions).
3. The server fails to check if the current user is allowed to change the Super Admin’s account, and applies the changes.

Code Example: Simulated Exploit

Let's look at a simplified example to understand what happens under the hood.

This is how vulnerable code in 74cmsSE might look in PHP

// Vulnerable sample: No privilege check on editing super admin

if ($_POST['action'] === 'edit_user') {
    $user_id = intval($_POST['user_id']);
    $new_password = $_POST['password'];
    $new_rights = $_POST['rights'];

    // (BAD) No check: can anyone change any user?
    $sql = "UPDATE admin_users SET password=MD5('$new_password'), rights='$new_rights' WHERE id=$user_id";
    mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

    echo "User updated successfully!";
}

A secure system should check:

Is the target the Super Admin?

- Do you have equal/higher privilege than the target?

But this code skips those checks, so even a basic admin can update the Super Admin’s data!

Here's a real-world like example using curl (assume cookies/session already authenticated)

curl -X POST -b "PHPSESSID=xyzabc123" \
    -d "action=edit_user&user_id=1&password=NewSuperSecret123&rights=all" \
    "http://example.com/admin/user_edit.php";

Assuming user_id=1 is the Super Admin, the target will have their password and rights changed—even by a low level user.

Who Is at Risk?

Sites using 74cmsSE v3.12. (and possibly earlier versions) that allow multiple admin accounts, especially in a team or organizational setting.

Defense & Mitigation

1. Upgrade immediately
The vendor fixed this issue in subsequent releases. Start here:
https://github.com/74cms/74CMSSE

2. Patch validation checks

Validate that the acting user has sufficient privilege to alter the target account.

3. Restrict low-level admin access
Until you patch, tightly control who gets any form of admin login.

4. Watch for suspicious account changes
Monitor and log changes to admin user accounts; automate alerts if the super admin’s settings are updated.

References & Further Reading

- NVD - CVE-2022-41471
- Mitre entry
- GitHub 74cmsSE project
- Exploit-DB (listing) (for similar 74cmsSE issues)

Final Thoughts

CVE-2022-41471 is dangerous because it’s easy—anyone with basic backend access could take over your job board. The best move: update to the latest version of 74cmsSE and audit your admin panels for proper privilege validation.

Have a question about how this bug worked or how to secure your setup? Drop a comment below—security through awareness is our best tool.


*Stay safe, and always keep your open source software up to date!*

Timeline

Published on: 10/17/2022 14:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 10/29/2022 02:57:00 UTC