Horizon Alert
Summary of the vulnerability and why it matters
This advisory describes a vulnerability in MacCMS that allows unauthorized individuals to take over member accounts. By exploiting a weakness in the password recovery process, attackers can gain access to user accounts if they know a victim's email or phone number. The main concern is confirming relevance and exposure.
- Allows account takeover through password reset.
- Key issue: brute-forcing password recovery codes.
- Confirm if this system is in use.
Attack Path
How an attacker could exploit the issue
An attacker, knowing a victim's email or phone number, can exploit this vulnerability to take over member accounts. The system's password recovery feature lacks sufficient restrictions on the number of attempts, allowing an attacker to guess the six-digit recovery code through brute force. This can lead to the attacker overwriting the victim's password and gaining unauthorized access to the account.
- Requires victim's email or phone.
- Brute-force password recovery code.
- Unauthenticated account takeover.
Live Threat
Current exploitation, exposure, and threat context
When supported by the advisory, unauthenticated attackers who know a victim's email or phone number could take over member accounts by brute-forcing a six-digit password recovery code. This could lead to unauthorized access and modification of user data or service behavior.
- Member account data.
- Brute-forcing recovery codes.
- Account takeover.
Operational Fix
Recommended remediation, mitigation, and detection steps
The MacCMS password recovery vulnerability necessitates action from teams responsible for application security and user account management. The first practical step is to inventory all MacCMS instances, confirm their internet reachability, and identify the business owner for each. This will enable risk-based prioritization for remediation.
- Application and security teams should own this.
- Verify MacCMS instances and exposure.
- Plan remediation based on identified risks.
