CVE-2002-2417 in acFTP
Summary
by MITRE
acFTP 1.4 does not properly handle when an invalid password is provided by the user during authentication, which allows remote attackers to hide or misrepresent certain activity from log files and possibly gain privileges.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/26/2025
The vulnerability described in CVE-2002-2417 affects acFTP 1.4, a file transfer protocol server implementation that fails to properly manage authentication failures when users provide invalid passwords. This flaw represents a critical security weakness in the software's access control mechanisms and logging capabilities. The improper handling of authentication errors creates opportunities for malicious actors to manipulate system audit trails and potentially escalate their privileges within the affected environment. The vulnerability specifically targets the authentication process where the system does not adequately distinguish between legitimate authentication failures and attempted attacks, leading to inconsistent logging behavior that can obscure malicious activities.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability stems from inadequate error handling within the authentication subsystem of acFTP 1.4. When a user submits an incorrect password, the system should generate consistent and informative log entries that accurately reflect the authentication attempt and its outcome. However, the flawed implementation allows the software to either suppress or misrepresent these log entries, creating gaps in the audit trail that attackers can exploit. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control, and CWE-778, which covers insufficient logging. The system's failure to maintain proper authentication records creates a security gap that violates fundamental principles of security auditing and monitoring.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple log manipulation, as it enables attackers to conduct stealthy reconnaissance and privilege escalation activities. By concealing authentication failures, malicious users can perform repeated login attempts without triggering alerts that would normally indicate brute force or dictionary attack patterns. This capability allows attackers to systematically probe for valid credentials while remaining undetected in the system logs. The vulnerability also creates potential for privilege escalation scenarios where attackers might exploit the inconsistent logging behavior to bypass access controls or gain unauthorized system privileges. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving credential access and privilege escalation through system binary exploitation and access control bypass.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2002-2417 should focus on implementing robust authentication error handling and comprehensive logging mechanisms. Organizations should immediately upgrade to a patched version of acFTP or migrate to more modern and secure FTP implementations that properly handle authentication failures. The system configuration should enforce consistent logging of all authentication attempts regardless of their success or failure status, ensuring that audit trails accurately reflect all user interactions with the system. Network segmentation and access control measures should be implemented to limit exposure to the vulnerable FTP service, while monitoring solutions should be configured to detect anomalous authentication patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar flaws in other network services that might present analogous security risks.