Oppia is an online learning platform. When comparing a received CSRF token against the expected token, Oppia uses the string equality operator (`==`), which is not safe against timing attacks. By repeatedly submitting invalid tokens, an attacker can brute-force the expected CSRF token character by character. Once they have recovered the token, they can then submit a forged request on behalf of a logged-in user and execute privileged actions on that user's behalf. In particular the function to validate received CSRF tokens is at `oppia.core.controllers.base.CsrfTokenManager.is_csrf_token_valid`. An attacker who can lure a logged-in Oppia user to a malicious website can perform any change on Oppia that the user is authorized to do, including changing profile information; creating, deleting, and changing explorations; etc. Note that the attacker cannot change a user's login credentials. An attack would need to complete within 1 second because every second, the time used in computing the token changes. This issue has been addressed in commit `b89bf80837` which has been included in release `3.3.2-hotfix-2`. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
History

No history.

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published: 2023-08-16T20:25:22.726Z

Updated: 2024-08-02T18:24:54.658Z

Reserved: 2023-08-08T13:46:25.243Z

Link: CVE-2023-40021

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Analyzed

Published: 2023-08-16T21:15:09.880

Modified: 2023-08-25T20:08:17.657

Link: CVE-2023-40021

cve-icon Redhat

No data.