CVE-2023-4959: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in Red Hat Red Hat Quay 3
A flaw was found in Quay. Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks force a user to perform unwanted actions in an application. During the pentest, it was detected that the config-editor page is vulnerable to CSRF. The config-editor page is used to configure the Quay instance. By coercing the victim’s browser into sending an attacker-controlled request from another domain, it is possible to reconfigure the Quay instance (including adding users with admin privileges).
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
CVE-2023-4959 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in Red Hat Quay 3, a container image registry platform widely used for managing container images in enterprise environments. The vulnerability specifically affects the config-editor page, which is responsible for configuring the Quay instance. CSRF attacks exploit the trust a web application places in a user's browser by tricking the user into submitting unauthorized requests. In this case, an attacker can craft a malicious webpage or script that causes an authenticated user's browser to send a request to the config-editor page from another domain without the user's consent. This can result in unauthorized changes to the Quay configuration, including the addition of users with administrative privileges. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5, reflecting medium severity, with the vector indicating network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), user interaction required (UI:R), unchanged scope (S:U), no confidentiality or integrity impact (C:N/I:N), but high impact on availability (A:H). The high availability impact suggests that the attacker could disrupt the service or its configuration, potentially causing denial of service or operational issues. No patches or exploits are currently publicly available, but the risk remains significant due to the potential for privilege escalation and service disruption.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be substantial, especially for those relying on Red Hat Quay 3 to manage container images in production or development environments. Unauthorized reconfiguration of the Quay instance could lead to service disruptions, denial of service, or unauthorized administrative access, which could cascade into broader security incidents such as unauthorized container deployments or compromise of containerized applications. The ability to add admin users without authorization increases the risk of insider threats or external attackers gaining persistent control. Given the increasing adoption of containerization and DevOps practices in Europe, this vulnerability could affect critical infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, and government sectors that depend on secure container registries. The lack of known exploits in the wild provides a window for mitigation, but the medium severity and ease of exploitation via social engineering or phishing make timely remediation essential.
Mitigation Recommendations
Organizations should immediately assess their use of Red Hat Quay 3 and restrict access to the config-editor page to trusted users only. Implementing anti-CSRF tokens or other CSRF protections in the application is critical to prevent unauthorized requests. Network-level controls such as Content Security Policy (CSP) and SameSite cookie attributes can reduce the risk of CSRF attacks by limiting cross-origin requests. Monitoring and logging configuration changes to detect suspicious activity is recommended. If possible, isolate the Quay management interface behind VPNs or internal networks to reduce exposure. Regularly update Red Hat Quay to the latest version once patches are released. Educate users about phishing and social engineering risks that could lead to CSRF exploitation. Finally, conduct penetration testing and security audits focused on web application security controls to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities.
Affected Countries
Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Spain
CVE-2023-4959: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in Red Hat Red Hat Quay 3
Description
A flaw was found in Quay. Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks force a user to perform unwanted actions in an application. During the pentest, it was detected that the config-editor page is vulnerable to CSRF. The config-editor page is used to configure the Quay instance. By coercing the victim’s browser into sending an attacker-controlled request from another domain, it is possible to reconfigure the Quay instance (including adding users with admin privileges).
AI-Powered Analysis
Technical Analysis
CVE-2023-4959 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in Red Hat Quay 3, a container image registry platform widely used for managing container images in enterprise environments. The vulnerability specifically affects the config-editor page, which is responsible for configuring the Quay instance. CSRF attacks exploit the trust a web application places in a user's browser by tricking the user into submitting unauthorized requests. In this case, an attacker can craft a malicious webpage or script that causes an authenticated user's browser to send a request to the config-editor page from another domain without the user's consent. This can result in unauthorized changes to the Quay configuration, including the addition of users with administrative privileges. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5, reflecting medium severity, with the vector indicating network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), user interaction required (UI:R), unchanged scope (S:U), no confidentiality or integrity impact (C:N/I:N), but high impact on availability (A:H). The high availability impact suggests that the attacker could disrupt the service or its configuration, potentially causing denial of service or operational issues. No patches or exploits are currently publicly available, but the risk remains significant due to the potential for privilege escalation and service disruption.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be substantial, especially for those relying on Red Hat Quay 3 to manage container images in production or development environments. Unauthorized reconfiguration of the Quay instance could lead to service disruptions, denial of service, or unauthorized administrative access, which could cascade into broader security incidents such as unauthorized container deployments or compromise of containerized applications. The ability to add admin users without authorization increases the risk of insider threats or external attackers gaining persistent control. Given the increasing adoption of containerization and DevOps practices in Europe, this vulnerability could affect critical infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, and government sectors that depend on secure container registries. The lack of known exploits in the wild provides a window for mitigation, but the medium severity and ease of exploitation via social engineering or phishing make timely remediation essential.
Mitigation Recommendations
Organizations should immediately assess their use of Red Hat Quay 3 and restrict access to the config-editor page to trusted users only. Implementing anti-CSRF tokens or other CSRF protections in the application is critical to prevent unauthorized requests. Network-level controls such as Content Security Policy (CSP) and SameSite cookie attributes can reduce the risk of CSRF attacks by limiting cross-origin requests. Monitoring and logging configuration changes to detect suspicious activity is recommended. If possible, isolate the Quay management interface behind VPNs or internal networks to reduce exposure. Regularly update Red Hat Quay to the latest version once patches are released. Educate users about phishing and social engineering risks that could lead to CSRF exploitation. Finally, conduct penetration testing and security audits focused on web application security controls to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities.
Affected Countries
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Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.1
- Assigner Short Name
- redhat
- Date Reserved
- 2023-09-14T09:07:57.784Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 68e84aedba0e608b4fb043aa
Added to database: 10/9/2025, 11:53:17 PM
Last enriched: 10/10/2025, 12:09:44 AM
Last updated: 10/16/2025, 2:41:50 PM
Views: 6
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