CVE-2014-5375 in Moab
Summary
by MITRE
The server in Adaptive Computing Moab before 7.2.9 and 8 before 8.0.0 does not properly validate the message owner matches the submitting user, which allows remote authenticated users to impersonate arbitrary users via the UserId and Owner tags.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/30/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-5375 affects Adaptive Computing Moab scheduling systems prior to versions 7.2.9 and 8.0.0, representing a critical authentication bypass flaw that undermines the integrity of user identity validation within the job submission process. This issue resides in the server component of the Moab workload management system, which is widely deployed in high-performance computing environments for resource allocation and job scheduling. The flaw specifically manifests in the improper validation of message ownership during job submission operations, creating a pathway for malicious actors to exploit the system's trust model.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user identity claims within the Moab server's message processing pipeline. When users submit jobs to the Moab scheduler, they typically provide UserId and Owner tags that identify the job owner. The system should verify that these identifiers correspond to the authenticated user submitting the job, but due to the flaw, this validation process fails to properly cross-check the message owner against the actual submitting user. This allows authenticated attackers to manipulate these tags and submit jobs on behalf of other users without proper authorization. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and can be exploited through the standard job submission interfaces that Moab provides to users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it fundamentally compromises the security model of the entire Moab environment. Attackers who can authenticate to the system can gain unauthorized access to resources and potentially execute arbitrary jobs as different users, leading to resource consumption abuse, data access violations, and potential system compromise. In high-performance computing environments where multiple research groups or organizations share resources, this vulnerability could enable unauthorized users to access sensitive computational resources or interfere with ongoing research projects. The implications are particularly severe in shared or multi-tenant computing environments where job isolation is critical for maintaining security boundaries. This flaw aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization in authentication systems, and represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-5375 should prioritize immediate deployment of the vendor-supplied patches for Moab versions 7.2.9 and 8.0.0, which address the improper validation logic in the server component. Organizations should also implement additional monitoring of job submission activities and user identity validation within their Moab environments to detect potential exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and access controls should be strengthened around Moab management interfaces to limit exposure of the vulnerable components. Security teams should conduct comprehensive audits of job submission processes and user permissions to ensure that unauthorized identity impersonation attempts are detected and prevented. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and authentication checks in distributed computing systems, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential stuffing, though in this case the issue is more about identity validation rather than credential theft. Organizations should also consider implementing additional layers of authentication and authorization controls beyond the default Moab security model to provide defense in depth against similar vulnerabilities.