CVE-2022-42246 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in Doufox version 0.0.4. This vulnerability allows an attacker to add a system administrator account without proper authorization. CSRF attacks exploit the trust that a web application places in a user's browser by tricking the user into submitting unauthorized requests. In this case, the vulnerability enables an attacker to craft malicious requests that, when executed by an authenticated user, result in the creation of a new administrator account. This effectively grants the attacker full administrative privileges, compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 reflects the critical impact, with an attack vector over the network (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), but requiring user interaction (UI:R). The scope is unchanged (S:U), and the impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is high (C:H/I:H/A:H). Although the specific vendor and product details are not provided, the vulnerability is tied to Doufox 0.0.4, which appears to be a software product or platform. No patches or known exploits in the wild are currently reported. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-352, which corresponds to CSRF weaknesses. The absence of vendor and product information limits the ability to provide product-specific technical details, but the nature of the vulnerability indicates a critical flaw in session and request validation mechanisms that should be addressed promptly to prevent unauthorized privilege escalation.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be severe if Doufox 0.0.4 is deployed within their IT environments. The ability to add a system administrator account without authentication compromises the entire system, potentially allowing attackers to gain persistent, high-level access. This can lead to data breaches involving sensitive personal data protected under GDPR, disruption of critical services, and unauthorized changes to system configurations. Organizations in sectors such as government, finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure are particularly at risk due to the high value of their data and the potential for operational disruption. The vulnerability's exploitation could facilitate lateral movement within networks, enabling attackers to escalate privileges and access other connected systems. Given the lack of known exploits in the wild, the threat may currently be low, but the high CVSS score and ease of exploitation without privileges make it a significant risk if the software is present. The requirement for user interaction suggests that social engineering or phishing could be used to trigger the attack, increasing the risk in environments with less security awareness.

1. Immediate identification and inventory of Doufox 0.0.4 installations within the organization to assess exposure. 2. If possible, disable or restrict access to Doufox interfaces until a patch or fix is available. 3. Implement strict CSRF protections such as anti-CSRF tokens, SameSite cookie attributes, and validating the origin and referer headers on all state-changing requests. 4. Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrative access to reduce the risk of unauthorized account creation. 5. Conduct user awareness training focused on recognizing and avoiding phishing and social engineering attempts that could trigger CSRF attacks. 6. Monitor logs and network traffic for unusual account creation activities or administrative actions. 7. Engage with the software vendor or community to obtain patches or updates addressing this vulnerability. 8. Consider network segmentation to isolate systems running Doufox from critical infrastructure to limit potential lateral movement. 9. Apply web application firewalls (WAF) with rules to detect and block CSRF attack patterns targeting Doufox interfaces. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on compensating controls and proactive detection tailored to the nature of this vulnerability.