STE WILLIAMS

A security researcher has warned of new vulnerabilities in former Tory MP and chick-lit queen Louise Mensch’s three-month-old chatroom-cum-microblogging service.

A “trivial” CSRF attack (‪cross-site request forgery‬) can change a Menshn.com user’s password, according to developer Danny Moules. El Reg has seen proof-of-concept code developed by Moules (@Rushyo) – which has not been publicly released – that backs up his concerns. Assuming targets are logged into Menshn.com, any third-party site might be able to change a victim’s Menshn password or registered email address, by using the unresolved CSRF vulnerability on the site to forge requests.

However, both Louise Mensch and the site’s co-founder Luke Bozier, a one-time Labour party flack who defected to the Tories earlier this year, were quick to dismiss concerns about the alleged flaw when approached for comment by El Reg.

“Not true at all. Menshn is 100% secure. There has never been a CSRF attack and I’m sure I know how to Google what that is,” Bozier said in a Twitter message.

Mensch added: “Passwords are encrypted: HTTPS.”

Menshn.com was the subject of a barrage of criticism from security experts when it launched in the UK back in June. Bozier described critics at the time as “snippy geeks”.

Since its launch, Menshn has mandated the use of an SSL encrypted tunnel for password exchange and applied a basic filter to stop basic XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks. However many problems remain, according to Moules.

Moules told El Reg: “The CSRF is just the latest in a long list of issues they’ve had, many of which are still at large. Some people are actively exploiting some XSS holes using a technique that I warned them about months ago (a ‘social network worm’, so to speak).”

Nick Shearer, a London-based mobile software engineer, who was among the first to document XSS issues on Menshn.com back in June, said that the latest CSRF flaw warning is all too credible.

“It definitely looks sound. I haven’t tested it because CSRF attacks are a bit more serious than XSS scripting, and English law takes a fairly backwards view of doing this sort of thing, even with the best of intentions. But there’s nothing in that code that suggests it’s not a real exploit,” he told El Reg.

Menshn.com social network aims to differentiate from other web jabber services such as Twitter by offering online chat rooms featuring on-topic discussion around a particular theme, such as UK politics or the Paralympics. Posted comments are deleted after a week and Menshn promises to offer an environment free of spam and trolls. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/05/menshn_password_reset_vuln/