MediumPublic exploit

IDOR in ProConf paper submission access control

IdentifiersCVE-2018-16606CWE-639· Authorization Bypass Through…

CVE-2018-16606 is an insecure direct object reference (IDOR) vulnerability in ProConf before version 6.1. The flaw allows an authenticated author to access other users' submitted paper records by modifying the Paper ID value in the pid parameter. Due to missing or insufficient server-side authorization checks on direct object access, an author can enumerate or request arbitrary paper objects and retrieve sensitive submission data. Exposed information includes paper title and abstract as well as authors' personal information such as name, email address, organization, and position.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation results in unauthorized access to confidential conference submission data and associated personally identifiable information. An attacker with author-level access can view and collect all submitted papers' titles and abstracts along with author identity and contact details. This compromises submission confidentiality and privacy, and could enable competitive intelligence gathering, targeted phishing, or further social engineering against authors.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate upgrade is not possible, restrict author access to the minimum necessary and monitor requests for abnormal pid enumeration or access patterns. Implement compensating controls at the application layer or reverse proxy to detect and block sequential or unauthorized paper ID access attempts. Reduce exposure of sensitive submission metadata where feasible and audit logs for evidence of bulk access to paper records.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade ProConf to version 6.1 or later, where the issue is addressed. Ensure server-side authorization checks are enforced for every request referencing a paper object, so that the application verifies the requesting user is permitted to access the specific pid requested. Review all direct object references for similar access-control flaws and replace predictable identifiers with indirect references where appropriate.

PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No valid public exploits. Mallory filtered out 1 candidate as fakes, detection scripts, or README-only repos.

VALID 0 / 1 TOTALView more in app

All candidate exploits were filtered out by Mallory's validation.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType

ProconfProconfapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

3 sources tracked across advisories and community write-ups. News coverage will land here when it surfaces.

3 SOURCESView more in app

No news coverage yet. Advisories and community discussion only.

What this page doesn’t show

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Exposure mapping

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Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity3