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News Script Php ProApplication · Newsscriptphp

CVE-2020-25472

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-11-24
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
SimplePHPscripts News Script PHP Pro 2.3 is affected by a Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability, which allows attackers to add new users.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

SimplePHPscripts News Script PHP Pro 2.3 contains a Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in its user management functionality. The application fails to validate anti-CSRF tokens or verify the Origin/Referer headers when processing user creation requests, allowing authenticated administrators to be tricked into unknowingly creating new user accounts via maliciously crafted links or forms hosted on attacker-controlled sites.

MitigationImplement anti-CSRF tokens (synchronizer token pattern) for all state-changing operations including user creation. Validate the Origin and Referer headers server-side, and consider implementing SameSite cookie attributes to provide additional CSRF protection.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
News Script Php ProApplication
Affected:= 2.3

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the installed version of SimplePHPscripts News Script PHP Pro
    Locate the version identifier in the source code files, typically in a file named version.php, index.php, or in the admin dashboard header/about section. Common paths include /include/ or /admin/ directories.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 2.3 (the only affected version listed)
  2. Locate the user creation functionality
    Access the admin panel and navigate to the user management or user creation section. Identify the script that handles new user account creation (commonly in /admin/users.php, /admin/add_user.php, or similar).
    Affected if The user creation functionality exists and is accessible within the admin interface
  3. Inspect the user creation script for anti-CSRF token validation
    Open the user creation PHP script in a text editor. Search for token validation logic using keywords like 'csrf', 'token', 'validate', 'verify', or 'session' around the form handling code.
    Affected if No anti-CSRF token generation, storage, or validation logic is present in the user creation code
  4. Check if Origin or Referer header validation is performed
    Examine the PHP script handling user creation requests. Look for server-side checks of $_SERVER['HTTP_ORIGIN'], $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], or similar header validation before processing the request.
    Affected if No server-side validation of Origin or Referer headers is performed before processing user creation
  5. Verify if the user creation form includes a token field
    View the HTML source of the user creation form in the admin panel. Check if there is a hidden input field containing a random token value that gets submitted with the form.
    Affected if The user creation form does not contain a hidden CSRF token field

You are affected if you are running SimplePHPscripts News Script PHP Pro version 2.3 and the user creation functionality lacks anti-CSRF token protection and Origin/Referer header validation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement anti-CSRF tokens (synchronizer token pattern) for all state-changing operations including user creation. Validate the Origin and Referer headers server-side, and consider implementing SameSite cookie attributes to provide additional CSRF protection.

Fix this in News Script Php Pro Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-25472 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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