CVE-2014-2722 in FortiBalancer
Summary
by MITRE
In FortiBalancer 400, 1000, 2000 and 3000, a platform-specific remote access vulnerability has been discovered that may allow a remote user to gain privileged access to affected systems using SSH. The vulnerability is caused by a configuration error, and is not the result of an underlying SSH defect.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/16/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-2722 affects FortiBalancer series devices including models 400, 1000, 2000, and 3000, representing a critical remote access flaw that undermines the security posture of load balancing appliances. This vulnerability specifically targets the Secure Shell implementation within these network devices, creating an unauthorized access vector that could potentially compromise the entire system. The flaw stems from a configuration error rather than inherent SSH protocol weaknesses, indicating that the issue lies in how the FortiBalancer software implements SSH access rather than fundamental cryptographic or authentication flaws in the SSH protocol itself. The vulnerability's classification as platform-specific suggests that only these particular FortiBalancer models are affected, while other network appliances or operating systems remain unaffected by this particular configuration issue.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability enables a remote attacker to gain privileged access to the affected FortiBalancer systems through SSH connections, potentially allowing full administrative control over the load balancing infrastructure. This configuration error likely involves improper privilege management or access control mechanisms within the SSH implementation that should have prevented unauthorized elevation of privileges. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple unauthorized access as it could enable attackers to manipulate load balancing configurations, redirect traffic, or potentially compromise the entire network infrastructure that relies on these appliances for traffic distribution. The fact that this is a remote access vulnerability means that attackers do not require physical access or local network presence to exploit the flaw, making it particularly dangerous in networked environments where SSH access might be exposed to external networks.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for organizations relying on FortiBalancer appliances for critical network infrastructure services. The ability to gain privileged access remotely could lead to complete system compromise, potentially resulting in service disruption, data interception, or unauthorized network access. The vulnerability's nature as a configuration error rather than an SSH protocol defect means that standard SSH security patches would not address the issue, requiring specific vendor updates or configuration changes to remediate. Organizations using these load balancers face potential exposure to advanced persistent threats that could leverage this vulnerability to establish long-term access to their network infrastructure. The impact on business continuity could be severe given that load balancers are typically critical components in maintaining service availability and traffic management.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-2722 should focus on immediate vendor-provided patches or configuration updates that address the specific configuration error within the SSH implementation. Organizations should implement network segmentation to limit SSH access to only necessary administrative hosts and consider disabling SSH access entirely if alternative management methods are available. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control in software systems, and could be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for social engineering approaches that might exploit this access. Security teams should conduct comprehensive network scans to identify affected devices and implement monitoring for unauthorized SSH access attempts. Regular security assessments and vulnerability management processes should be enhanced to detect similar configuration errors in other network appliances. The remediation process must include thorough testing of patches to ensure that the configuration fixes do not inadvertently impact legitimate administrative access or network operations.