Summary
Orchard CMS contains an improper authorization vulnerability in media permission checks that may allow authenticated Authors and Contributors to access media owned by other users. Depending on the affected operation, an attacker could display, clone, or delete other users' media and may delete arbitrary media folders.
Orchard CMS contains an improper authorization vulnerability in media permission checks that may allow authenticated Authors and Contributors to access media owned by other users. Depending on the affected operation, an attacker could display, clone, or delete other users' media and may delete arbitrary media folders.
Affected context
The vulnerability occurs in Orchard CMS versions 1.10.3 through 1.11 when media operations rely on the vulnerable permission logic in MediaLibraryService.CheckMediaFolderPermission() or folder deletion handling in FolderController.Delete(). Risk is present when lower-privileged authenticated users, such as Authors or Contributors, can submit requests containing media or folder identifiers without effective ownership and authorization enforcement.
The vulnerability occurs in Orchard CMS versions 1.10.3 through 1.11 when media operations rely on the vulnerable permission logic in MediaLibraryService.CheckMediaFolderPermission() or folder deletion handling in FolderController.Delete(). Risk is present when lower-privileged authenticated users, such as Authors or Contributors, can submit requests containing media or folder identifiers without effective ownership and authorization enforcement.
Exploit preconditions
- Attack surface: Authenticated Orchard CMS media and folder management endpoints
- Required access: A valid account with Author or Contributor privileges
- Trigger point: Requests that display, clone, or delete media by content ID, or delete media folders
- Why exploitation is possible: Authorization checks may not correctly enforce ownership or permitted folder scope for the requested resource
- Attack surface: Authenticated Orchard CMS media and folder management endpoints
- Required access: A valid account with Author or Contributor privileges
- Trigger point: Requests that display, clone, or delete media by content ID, or delete media folders
- Why exploitation is possible: Authorization checks may not correctly enforce ownership or permitted folder scope for the requested resource
Why this happens
The underlying bug is an authorization failure in which access decisions do not reliably verify whether the authenticated user is permitted to operate on the target media item or folder. This maps to CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization, where a system performs an authorization check but applies it incorrectly or incompletely, allowing a user to exceed the intended permission boundary.
The underlying bug is an authorization failure in which access decisions do not reliably verify whether the authenticated user is permitted to operate on the target media item or folder. This maps to CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization, where a system performs an authorization check but applies it incorrectly or incompletely, allowing a user to exceed the intended permission boundary.
Potential impact
- Authenticated users may view media belonging to other users
- Attackers could clone or duplicate unauthorized media items
- Other users' media may be deleted
- Arbitrary media folders could potentially be removed
- Content availability, integrity, and privacy may be affected
- Authenticated users may view media belonging to other users
- Attackers could clone or duplicate unauthorized media items
- Other users' media may be deleted
- Arbitrary media folders could potentially be removed
- Content availability, integrity, and privacy may be affected
General mitigation guidance
Mitigation generally focuses on making authorization decisions resource-specific, deny-by-default, and independent of user-supplied identifiers.
Common defensive patterns include:
- Enforcing ownership and folder-scope checks for every media operation
- Centralizing authorization policy evaluation rather than duplicating inconsistent checks
- Validating that the requested resource belongs to an allowed tenant, user, or content scope
- Avoiding reliance on client-supplied IDs as evidence of permission
- Applying least privilege to Author and Contributor roles
- Requiring explicit authorization before destructive actions such as deletion
- Recording and reviewing sensitive media access and deletion events
Mitigation generally focuses on making authorization decisions resource-specific, deny-by-default, and independent of user-supplied identifiers.
Common defensive patterns include:
- Enforcing ownership and folder-scope checks for every media operation
- Centralizing authorization policy evaluation rather than duplicating inconsistent checks
- Validating that the requested resource belongs to an allowed tenant, user, or content scope
- Avoiding reliance on client-supplied IDs as evidence of permission
- Applying least privilege to Author and Contributor roles
- Requiring explicit authorization before destructive actions such as deletion
- Recording and reviewing sensitive media access and deletion events
How teams detect issues like this
Organizations can detect similar authorization weaknesses through:
- Static analysis and review rules that identify resource lookups performed without a subsequent ownership or scope check
- Code review of controller actions and service methods that accept content or folder identifiers
- Authorization matrix testing across Authors, Contributors, administrators, and resource owners
- Negative tests confirming that users cannot access, clone, or delete resources outside their permitted scope
- Policy enforcement requiring authorization checks before all read, write, clone, and delete operations
- Monitoring for unusual cross-user media access or deletion activity
Organizations can detect similar authorization weaknesses through:
- Static analysis and review rules that identify resource lookups performed without a subsequent ownership or scope check
- Code review of controller actions and service methods that accept content or folder identifiers
- Authorization matrix testing across Authors, Contributors, administrators, and resource owners
- Negative tests confirming that users cannot access, clone, or delete resources outside their permitted scope
- Policy enforcement requiring authorization checks before all read, write, clone, and delete operations
- Monitoring for unusual cross-user media access or deletion activity
