CVE-2011-4925 in TORQUE Resource Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Terascale Open-Source Resource and Queue Manager (aka TORQUE Resource Manager) before 2.5.9, when munge authentication is used, allows remote authenticated users to impersonate arbitrary user accounts via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/28/2021
The Terascale Open-Source Resource and Queue Manager TORQUE Resource Manager version 2.5.8 and earlier contains a critical authentication bypass vulnerability that affects systems using munge authentication mechanisms. This vulnerability specifically targets the authentication flow within the resource management framework, creating a pathway for remote authenticated attackers to escalate their privileges and assume the identity of arbitrary user accounts. The flaw exists in the munge authentication module implementation, which is designed to provide secure authentication between distributed computing nodes in high-performance computing environments.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of authentication tokens within the munge authentication process. When munge authentication is enabled, the system relies on munge service to generate and verify authentication tokens for user sessions. However, the TORQUE Resource Manager fails to properly validate the authenticity of these tokens, allowing malicious authenticated users to manipulate token parameters or forge valid authentication contexts. This weakness creates a privilege escalation vector that operates at the core of the authentication infrastructure, potentially enabling attackers to execute commands with elevated privileges of other users within the system. The unspecified vectors mentioned in the CVE description suggest that the vulnerability may manifest through multiple attack pathways within the munge token processing logic, including token replay attacks, token manipulation, or session hijacking techniques.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it fundamentally compromises the security model of TORQUE-based clusters. Remote authenticated users who can access the system through legitimate means can leverage this flaw to gain unauthorized access to resources, data, and compute jobs belonging to other users. This creates significant risks in multi-tenant computing environments where multiple research groups or organizations share the same resource management infrastructure. The vulnerability affects systems where TORQUE is deployed with munge authentication enabled, which is common in academic, research, and enterprise HPC environments. Organizations relying on TORQUE for job scheduling and resource allocation face potential data breaches, resource misuse, and denial of service conditions when this vulnerability is exploited. The impact is particularly severe in environments where sensitive research data or proprietary computational workloads are processed.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2011-4925 should prioritize immediate patching of TORQUE Resource Manager installations to version 2.5.9 or later, which contains the necessary authentication validation fixes. Organizations should also implement additional monitoring of authentication events and token usage patterns to detect potential exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and access control measures can help limit the attack surface by restricting remote access to the TORQUE management interfaces. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication issues, and relates to ATT&CK technique T1550.001 for use of valid credentials, as it allows attackers to leverage legitimate authentication tokens to impersonate other users. System administrators should also consider implementing multi-factor authentication mechanisms and regularly auditing user access permissions to minimize the potential damage from such authentication bypass vulnerabilities.