VulnerabilityPublished 5 Nov 2024Updated 6 Nov 2024

CVE-2024-51381: JATOS · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.4 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 09:15 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

8.4High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 16% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 5 Nov 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-51381 effectively, organizations should implement multiple layers of defense beyond generic advice: 1) Immediately apply any official patches or updates from JATOS once available. 2) If patches are not yet released, deploy web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious CSRF attempts targeting administrative endpoints. 3) Enforce strict CSRF protections by ensuring all state-changing requests require valid anti-CSRF tokens and verify the Origin and Referer headers. 4) Limit administrative access to trusted networks or VPNs to reduce exposure to external attackers. 5) Educate administrators on the risks of phishing and social engineering to prevent inadvertent interaction with malicious links or sites. 6) Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for admin accounts to reduce the impact of compromised credentials. 7) Regularly audit admin account creation and modification logs to detect unauthorized changes promptly. 8) Consider isolating the JATOS administrative interface from the public internet or restricting access via IP whitelisting. These targeted measures will reduce the attack surface and help prevent exploitation of this CSRF vulnerability.

Description

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in JATOS v3.9.3 that allows attackers to perform actions reserved for administrators, including creating admin accounts. This critical flaw can lead to unauthorized activities, compromising the security and integrity of the platform, especially if an attacker gains administrative control.

Impact

The impact of CVE-2024-51381 is substantial for organizations using JATOS, particularly in academic, research, and behavioral science domains. Successful exploitation allows attackers to gain administrative privileges, enabling them to create or modify admin accounts, alter or delete research data, manipulate experiment configurations, and disrupt service availability. This compromises the confidentiality of sensitive participant data and the integrity of research results, potentially invalidating studies and causing reputational damage. Additionally, attackers could use the platform as a foothold for lateral movement within an organization's network. Since JATOS is often deployed in environments handling sensitive or regulated data, such as medical or psychological research, the breach could lead to compliance violations and legal consequences. The requirement for an authenticated administrator and user interaction (tricking the admin) somewhat limits exploitation but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments where phishing or social engineering is feasible. The lack of current public exploits suggests a window for proactive mitigation, but the critical nature of the vulnerability demands urgent attention to prevent future attacks.

CWE-352Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) (opens in a new tab)
Compound weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #3OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The web application does not, or cannot, sufficiently verify whether a request was intentionally provided by the user who sent the request, which could have originated from an unauthorized actor.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation
Ensure that the application is free of cross-site scripting issues (CWE-79), because most CSRF defenses can be bypassed using attacker-controlled script.
Architecture and Design
Generate a unique nonce for each form, place the nonce into the form, and verify the nonce upon receipt of the form. Be sure that the nonce is not predictable (CWE-330).
OWASP Cheat Sheets
REST Assessment (opens in a new tab)
REST Security (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Request Forgery Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Authorization Testing Automation (opens in a new tab)
Insecure Direct Object Reference Prevention (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.2.3 (opens in a new tab)
V4.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
V13.3.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
JSON Hijacking (aka JavaScript Hijacking) (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Domain Search Timing (opens in a new tab)
Cross Site Identification (opens in a new tab)
Cross Site Request Forgery (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

hacking-notes.medium.com/cve-2024-51381-jatos-v3-9-3-csrf-admin-account-creation-94035f24d0be (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 28 Feb 2026, 02:56 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-352

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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