CVE-2021-25931: Cross-Site Request Forgery in OpenNMS
In OpenNMS Horizon, versions opennms-1-0-stable through opennms-27.1.0-1; OpenNMS Meridian, versions meridian-foundation-2015.1.0-1 through meridian-foundation-2019.1.18-1; meridian-foundation-2020.1.0-1 through meridian-foundation-2020.1.6-1 are vulnerable to CSRF, due to no CSRF protection at `/opennms/admin/userGroupView/users/updateUser`. This flaw allows assigning `ROLE_ADMIN` security role to a normal user. Using this flaw, an attacker can trick the admin user to assign administrator privileges to a normal user by enticing him to click upon an attacker-controlled website.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
CVE-2021-25931 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting multiple versions of OpenNMS Horizon and OpenNMS Meridian. OpenNMS is an open-source network management platform widely used for monitoring and managing IT infrastructure. The vulnerability exists due to the absence of CSRF protection on the endpoint `/opennms/admin/userGroupView/users/updateUser`. This endpoint is responsible for updating user roles within the system. An attacker can exploit this flaw by tricking an authenticated administrator into visiting a malicious website that silently sends a crafted request to the vulnerable OpenNMS instance. This request assigns the `ROLE_ADMIN` privilege to a normal user account controlled by the attacker. Once the attacker-controlled user gains administrative privileges, they can fully compromise the OpenNMS system, including modifying configurations, accessing sensitive monitoring data, and potentially pivoting to other parts of the network. The vulnerability affects OpenNMS Horizon versions from 1.0.0 stable through 27.1.0-1, and OpenNMS Meridian versions from 2015.1.0-1 through 2019.1.18-1 and 2020.1.0-1 through 2020.1.6-1. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 8.8, reflecting the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, combined with ease of exploitation requiring only user interaction (an admin clicking a link). No known public exploits have been reported in the wild as of the publication date. The root cause is the lack of anti-CSRF tokens or similar protections on a sensitive administrative function, violating best practices for web application security. This flaw falls under CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery).
Potential Impact
For European organizations using OpenNMS for network and infrastructure monitoring, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to escalate privileges within the monitoring platform, potentially leading to full administrative control. This can result in unauthorized access to sensitive network topology and performance data, manipulation or disruption of monitoring alerts, and the ability to conceal malicious activities by altering monitoring configurations. Given that OpenNMS is often integrated into critical infrastructure and enterprise IT environments, compromise could facilitate lateral movement and further attacks on internal systems. The impact is especially critical for sectors with stringent regulatory requirements such as finance, healthcare, energy, and government agencies in Europe. The attack requires social engineering targeting administrators, which may be feasible in targeted spear-phishing campaigns. The absence of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate it, as the vulnerability has been public since May 2021. Organizations failing to patch or mitigate remain exposed to privilege escalation and potential full system compromise.
Mitigation Recommendations
To mitigate CVE-2021-25931, European organizations should: 1) Immediately upgrade OpenNMS to a version where this vulnerability is patched. If no official patch is available, consider applying community patches or workarounds that add CSRF protections to the affected endpoint. 2) Implement strict network segmentation and access controls to limit administrative access to the OpenNMS web interface only to trusted networks and users. 3) Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative accounts to reduce the risk of credential misuse. 4) Educate administrators about phishing and social engineering risks, emphasizing caution when clicking links, especially from untrusted sources. 5) Monitor OpenNMS logs and user activity for suspicious privilege escalations or unexpected administrative changes. 6) If upgrading is delayed, consider deploying web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block unauthorized POST requests to the vulnerable endpoint. 7) Regularly audit user roles and permissions within OpenNMS to detect unauthorized privilege assignments. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on compensating controls and operational practices tailored to the nature of this CSRF vulnerability.
Affected Countries
Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Finland
CVE-2021-25931: Cross-Site Request Forgery in OpenNMS
Description
In OpenNMS Horizon, versions opennms-1-0-stable through opennms-27.1.0-1; OpenNMS Meridian, versions meridian-foundation-2015.1.0-1 through meridian-foundation-2019.1.18-1; meridian-foundation-2020.1.0-1 through meridian-foundation-2020.1.6-1 are vulnerable to CSRF, due to no CSRF protection at `/opennms/admin/userGroupView/users/updateUser`. This flaw allows assigning `ROLE_ADMIN` security role to a normal user. Using this flaw, an attacker can trick the admin user to assign administrator privileges to a normal user by enticing him to click upon an attacker-controlled website.
AI-Powered Analysis
Technical Analysis
CVE-2021-25931 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting multiple versions of OpenNMS Horizon and OpenNMS Meridian. OpenNMS is an open-source network management platform widely used for monitoring and managing IT infrastructure. The vulnerability exists due to the absence of CSRF protection on the endpoint `/opennms/admin/userGroupView/users/updateUser`. This endpoint is responsible for updating user roles within the system. An attacker can exploit this flaw by tricking an authenticated administrator into visiting a malicious website that silently sends a crafted request to the vulnerable OpenNMS instance. This request assigns the `ROLE_ADMIN` privilege to a normal user account controlled by the attacker. Once the attacker-controlled user gains administrative privileges, they can fully compromise the OpenNMS system, including modifying configurations, accessing sensitive monitoring data, and potentially pivoting to other parts of the network. The vulnerability affects OpenNMS Horizon versions from 1.0.0 stable through 27.1.0-1, and OpenNMS Meridian versions from 2015.1.0-1 through 2019.1.18-1 and 2020.1.0-1 through 2020.1.6-1. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 8.8, reflecting the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, combined with ease of exploitation requiring only user interaction (an admin clicking a link). No known public exploits have been reported in the wild as of the publication date. The root cause is the lack of anti-CSRF tokens or similar protections on a sensitive administrative function, violating best practices for web application security. This flaw falls under CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery).
Potential Impact
For European organizations using OpenNMS for network and infrastructure monitoring, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to escalate privileges within the monitoring platform, potentially leading to full administrative control. This can result in unauthorized access to sensitive network topology and performance data, manipulation or disruption of monitoring alerts, and the ability to conceal malicious activities by altering monitoring configurations. Given that OpenNMS is often integrated into critical infrastructure and enterprise IT environments, compromise could facilitate lateral movement and further attacks on internal systems. The impact is especially critical for sectors with stringent regulatory requirements such as finance, healthcare, energy, and government agencies in Europe. The attack requires social engineering targeting administrators, which may be feasible in targeted spear-phishing campaigns. The absence of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate it, as the vulnerability has been public since May 2021. Organizations failing to patch or mitigate remain exposed to privilege escalation and potential full system compromise.
Mitigation Recommendations
To mitigate CVE-2021-25931, European organizations should: 1) Immediately upgrade OpenNMS to a version where this vulnerability is patched. If no official patch is available, consider applying community patches or workarounds that add CSRF protections to the affected endpoint. 2) Implement strict network segmentation and access controls to limit administrative access to the OpenNMS web interface only to trusted networks and users. 3) Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative accounts to reduce the risk of credential misuse. 4) Educate administrators about phishing and social engineering risks, emphasizing caution when clicking links, especially from untrusted sources. 5) Monitor OpenNMS logs and user activity for suspicious privilege escalations or unexpected administrative changes. 6) If upgrading is delayed, consider deploying web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block unauthorized POST requests to the vulnerable endpoint. 7) Regularly audit user roles and permissions within OpenNMS to detect unauthorized privilege assignments. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on compensating controls and operational practices tailored to the nature of this CSRF vulnerability.
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Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.1
- Assigner Short Name
- Mend
- Date Reserved
- 2021-01-22T00:00:00.000Z
- Cisa Enriched
- true
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 682d983ac4522896dcbed67f
Added to database: 5/21/2025, 9:09:14 AM
Last enriched: 7/2/2025, 3:12:32 AM
Last updated: 7/29/2025, 8:55:12 PM
Views: 13
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