CVE-2012-3538 in CloudForms
Summary
by MITRE
Pulp in Red Hat CloudForms before 1.1 logs administrative passwords in a world-readable file, which allows local users to read pulp administrative passwords by reading production.log.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/21/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-3538 represents a critical misconfiguration issue within the Pulp content management system deployed in Red Hat CloudForms environments prior to version 1.1. This flaw stems from improper logging practices where administrative credentials are written to log files with insufficient access controls, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on these platforms for content delivery and management. The issue manifests when the system generates log entries containing administrative passwords in cleartext format within the production.log file, which is accessible to all local users on the system.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the logging subsystem of Pulp where administrative authentication credentials are inadvertently stored in plaintext within the application log files. When administrative operations occur within the CloudForms environment, the system writes detailed operational information including sensitive credential data to the production.log file. The root cause lies in the lack of proper log sanitization and access control mechanisms that should prevent sensitive information from being persisted in world-readable files. This configuration error violates fundamental security principles of least privilege and data protection, as the log file permissions are set to allow read access for all users on the system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple credential exposure, as local users with minimal system access can directly retrieve administrative passwords and potentially escalate their privileges within the CloudForms environment. Attackers can leverage this weakness to gain unauthorized access to administrative functions, manipulate content repositories, and potentially compromise the entire content management infrastructure. The vulnerability creates a persistent threat vector that remains active as long as the affected system operates with the vulnerable Pulp version, allowing attackers to maintain access even after initial compromise. This represents a significant risk to organizations deploying CloudForms for enterprise content management and distribution.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigation strategies including updating to Red Hat CloudForms version 1.1 or later where this vulnerability has been addressed through proper log sanitization and access control mechanisms. System administrators must verify that log files containing sensitive information are configured with appropriate file permissions that restrict access to authorized administrative users only. The implementation of log rotation policies and the removal of sensitive data from log files should be enforced through security configuration management processes. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive audits of their logging configurations to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities across their infrastructure, aligning with security frameworks such as the CWE-532 principle of preventing information exposure through log files and following ATT&CK techniques related to credential access and privilege escalation through local system compromise.