CVE-2012-3542 in Horizon
Summary
by MITRE
OpenStack Keystone, as used in OpenStack Folsom before folsom-rc1 and OpenStack Essex (2012.1), allows remote attackers to add an arbitrary user to an arbitrary tenant via a request to update the user s default tenant to the administrative API. NOTE: this identifier was originally incorrectly assigned to an open redirect issue, but the correct identifier for that issue is CVE-2012-3540.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/13/2021
The vulnerability described in CVE-2012-3542 represents a critical authorization flaw within OpenStack Keystone authentication service that affected versions prior to folsom-rc1 and OpenStack Essex 2012.1 releases. This issue specifically targets the administrative API endpoint responsible for user management operations, creating a privilege escalation vector that allows remote attackers to manipulate user tenant assignments without proper authentication. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control checks within the user management functionality, enabling malicious actors to exploit the system's trust model and gain unauthorized access to tenant resources.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs through a carefully crafted API request that modifies a user's default tenant assignment within the administrative interface. Attackers can leverage this flaw by sending a specially formatted update request to the Keystone service, effectively bypassing normal user creation and tenant assignment procedures. The flaw exists because the system fails to properly validate whether the requesting entity has sufficient privileges to modify user tenant associations, particularly when the target user already exists within the system. This represents a classic case of insufficient authorization checks, which maps directly to CWE-285: Improper Authorization, and demonstrates how weak access control mechanisms can lead to privilege escalation.
The operational impact of CVE-2012-3542 extends beyond simple unauthorized access to create significant security risks for cloud deployments. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can effectively gain administrative access to any tenant within the OpenStack environment, potentially leading to data theft, service disruption, or complete system compromise. The vulnerability allows for the creation of unauthorized administrative users within existing tenants, undermining the fundamental security model of cloud environments where tenant isolation is paramount. This issue particularly affects multi-tenant cloud deployments where different organizations share the same infrastructure, as it enables cross-tenant attacks and data breaches that could result in substantial financial and reputational damage.
From an adversarial perspective, this vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK framework techniques including T1078 Valid Accounts and T1484 Default Credentials, as attackers can leverage legitimate user accounts to escalate privileges and gain unauthorized access to tenant resources. The exploit requires minimal network exposure since it operates through the standard administrative API endpoints, making it particularly dangerous for cloud environments with public API access. Organizations implementing cloud security measures should consider this vulnerability when evaluating their access control policies and monitoring for unauthorized user management activities. The remediation process involves applying the appropriate patches released by OpenStack, implementing stricter API access controls, and conducting thorough security audits of administrative endpoints to prevent similar privilege escalation scenarios.
The broader implications of CVE-2012-3542 highlight the importance of proper access control implementation in cloud authentication systems and demonstrate how seemingly minor flaws in API design can lead to catastrophic security consequences. This vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical need for comprehensive security testing of administrative interfaces and the importance of following secure coding practices that include proper input validation and authorization checks. Organizations should implement network segmentation, API rate limiting, and continuous monitoring of administrative API calls to detect and prevent exploitation attempts. The incident also underscores the necessity of maintaining up-to-date security patches and conducting regular security assessments of cloud infrastructure components to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors.