CVE-2015-1778 in OpenDaylight
Summary
by MITRE
The custom authentication realm used by karaf-tomcat's "opendaylight" realm in Opendaylight before Helium SR3 will authenticate any username and password combination.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/20/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-1778 represents a critical authentication bypass flaw within the OpenDaylight SDN platform's karaf-tomcat component. This issue specifically affects versions prior to Helium SR3 and stems from a misconfiguration in the custom authentication realm implementation that governs access control for the "opendaylight" realm. The flaw fundamentally undermines the security posture of the platform by allowing any username and password combination to successfully authenticate users, effectively rendering the authentication mechanism useless for access control purposes.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper implementation of the authentication realm within the Karaf container's Tomcat integration. The custom authentication realm fails to properly validate credentials against any legitimate user database or authentication source, instead accepting all authentication attempts regardless of the provided credentials. This represents a classic implementation flaw that aligns with CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues. The vulnerability operates at the application level within the web container's security framework, where the realm configuration does not enforce proper credential validation mechanisms that would normally verify user identities against stored credentials or external authentication sources.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a severe security risk for OpenDaylight deployments as it allows unauthorized users to gain access to the platform's management interfaces and administrative functions. Attackers can exploit this flaw to perform privilege escalation attacks, gain unauthorized access to network configuration data, manipulate routing tables, and potentially compromise the entire SDN infrastructure. The implications extend beyond simple unauthorized access, as the platform's security model is completely subverted, enabling attackers to execute malicious operations that could disrupt network services, exfiltrate sensitive data, or establish persistent access points within the network infrastructure. This vulnerability directly maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and credential access, as the authentication bypass allows for legitimate account access without proper authentication.
The mitigation strategy for this vulnerability requires immediate patching of affected OpenDaylight installations to versions Helium SR3 or later where the authentication realm has been properly implemented. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive security assessments of their OpenDaylight deployments to identify any potential exploitation that may have occurred before patching. Additional defensive measures include implementing network segmentation to limit access to management interfaces, deploying additional authentication layers such as external LDAP or Active Directory integration, and establishing robust monitoring for unauthorized access attempts. Security teams should also review and validate all authentication configurations within the Karaf container to ensure that custom realms properly enforce credential validation. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper authentication implementation in enterprise security platforms and serves as a reminder of the critical nature of access control mechanisms in network management systems.