# CVE-2023-5444: CSRF in ePO leading to privilege escalation

> A CSRF vulnerability in ePolicy Orchestrator allows a low-privilege user to add an administrator account, leading to privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** High 8.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 2 Dec 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qvh3-87rf-gc36

## What is CVE-2023-5444?

CVE-2023-5444 is a high-severity vulnerability in Mcafee Epolicy Orchestrator, published on 17 Nov 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A Cross Site Request Forgery vulnerability in ePolicy Orchestrator prior to 5.10.0 CP1 Update 2 allows a remote low privilege user to successfully add a new user with administrator privileges to the ePO server. This impacts the dashboard area of the user interface. To exploit this the attacker must change the HTTP payload post submission, prior to it reaching the ePO server.

Weakness: CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-5444?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mcafee Epolicy Orchestrator.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-5444?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-5444 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-5444 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5444 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Mcafee Epolicy Orchestrator

- [CVE-2016-8027](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8027/): SQL injection in McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) 5.3.2 and earlier and 5.1.3 and earlier (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2006-5156](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-5156/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2002-0690](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-0690/): Code injection in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2007-1498](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1498/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2015-8765](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-8765/): Deserialization in n/a (high 8.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-5444 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-5444 is a high-severity vulnerability in Mcafee Epolicy Orchestrator, published on 17 Nov 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5444 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Mcafee Epolicy Orchestrator. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5444/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5444/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-5444
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-5444
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-5444

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5444/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.