CVE-2017-18703

Vulnerability

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affects numerous NETGEAR routers, gateways, and extenders. The vulnerability exists in the web-based management interface of these devices. Successful exploitation requires an authenticated administrator to be tricked into accessing a malicious link. Affected models and firmware versions include: D1500 before 1.0.0.25, D500 before 1.0.0.25, D6100 before 1.0.0.55, D7000 before 1.0.1.50, D7800 before 1.0.1.28, EX6100v2 before 1.0.1.60, EX6150v2 before 1.0.1.60, JNR1010v2 before 1.1.0.46, JR6150 before 1.0.1.16, JWNR2010v5 before 1.1.0.46, PR2000 before 1.0.0.18, R6020 before 1.0.0.26, R6050 before 1.0.1.16, R6080 before 1.0.0.26, R6100 before 1.0.1.20, R6220 before 1.1.0.60, R7500 before 1.0.0.118, R7500v2 before 1.0.3.20, R7800 before 1.0.2.40, R9000 before 1.0.2.52, WN3000RPv3 before 1.0.2.50, WN3100RPv2 before 1.0.0.40, WNDR3700v5 before 1.1.0.48, WNDR4300v2 before 1.0.0.48, WNDR4500v3 before 1.0.0.48, WNR1000v4 before 1.1.0.46, WNR2000v5 before 1.0.0.62, WNR2020 before 1.1.0.46, and WNR2050 before 1.1.0.46 [1].

Exploitation

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious web page or link that performs requests to the target NETGEAR device's management interface. The attacker does not need authentication, but the victim must be authenticated as an administrator to the affected device at the time of visiting the malicious page. The attack does not require special network position beyond delivering the link to the victim via email, social media, or other means. The victim's web browser sends a crafted request to the device, which executes the attacker's desired action, such as changing configuration settings.

Impact

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to perform arbitrary actions on the affected device with the privileges of the victim administrator. This could include changing DNS settings, disabling security features, adding backdoor accounts, or modifying firewall rules, potentially leading to compromise of the network.

Mitigation

NETGEAR has released firmware updates to fix this vulnerability. The fixed versions are listed in the advisory [1]. Users should update to the latest firmware for their device model as soon as possible. No workarounds are provided; the only mitigation is to apply the firmware update.