Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as problematic has been reported in Eclipse Mosquitto up to 1.5.5. This impacts an unknown function of the component Password File Handler. This manipulation causes improper authentication. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2018-12551. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Eclipse Mosquitto up to 1.5.5 and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code of the component Password File Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a improper authentication vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-287. When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

When Eclipse Mosquitto version 1.0 to 1.5.5 (inclusive) is configured to use a password file for authentication, any malformed data in the password file will be treated as valid. This typically means that the malformed data becomes a username and no password. If this occurs, clients can circumvent authentication and get access to the broker by using the malformed username. In particular, a blank line will be treated as a valid empty username. Other security measures are unaffected. Users who have only used the mosquitto_passwd utility to create and modify their password files are unaffected by this vulnerability.

The bug was discovered 02/08/2019. The weakness was presented 03/27/2019 (Website). The advisory is shared at bugs.eclipse.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2018-12551 since 06/18/2018. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 47 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 176583 (Debian Security Update for mosquitto (DSA 4388-1)).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

See VDB-132491 and VDB-132492 for similar entries. Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Eclipse

Name

• Mosquitto

Version

• 1.5.0
• 1.5.1
• 1.5.2
• 1.5.3
• 1.5.4
• 1.5.5

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Discussion