CVE-2015-3316 in Management Agent
Summary
by MITRE
CA Common Services, as used in CA Client Automation r12.5 SP01, r12.8, and r12.9; CA Network and Systems Management r11.0, r11.1, and r11.2; CA NSM Job Management Option r11.0, r11.1, and r11.2; CA Universal Job Management Agent; CA Virtual Assurance for Infrastructure Managers (aka SystemEDGE) 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, and 12.9; and CA Workload Automation AE r11, r11.3, r11.3.5, and r11.3.6 on UNIX, allows local users to gain privileges via an unspecified environment variable.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/21/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-3316 represents a local privilege escalation issue within CA Common Services components across multiple CA software products including Client Automation, Network and Systems Management, and Workload Automation. This flaw exists in versions ranging from r12.5 SP01 through r12.9, as well as various releases of CA Virtual Assurance and Universal Job Management agents. The vulnerability specifically relates to improper handling of environment variables during application execution, creating a pathway for local attackers to elevate their privileges from standard user levels to administrative or root access. This type of vulnerability falls under the CWE-276 category of "Improper Ownership" and can be classified as a privilege escalation weakness in the context of the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the Privilege Escalation tactic.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the insecure processing of environment variables within the CA Common Services framework. When applications execute with elevated privileges or access to sensitive system resources, they often rely on environment variables to determine execution context and resource locations. In this case, the environment variable handling mechanism fails to properly validate or sanitize input from local users, allowing them to manipulate these variables to influence the application's behavior. The unspecified nature of the environment variable in the vulnerability description suggests that multiple variables within the application's execution context may be susceptible to manipulation, making this a potentially broad attack surface. The flaw is particularly concerning in enterprise environments where multiple CA products are deployed, as it provides a consistent attack vector across various software components.
The operational impact of CVE-2015-3316 extends beyond simple privilege escalation to potentially compromise entire enterprise infrastructure managed through CA products. Local attackers who can exploit this vulnerability gain access to administrative privileges that would otherwise require legitimate administrative credentials or more complex attack vectors. This escalation allows for complete system compromise, including the ability to modify critical system files, install malicious software, access sensitive data, and potentially pivot to other systems within the network. The vulnerability is especially dangerous in UNIX environments where CA products are commonly deployed, as it can provide attackers with root-level access to critical enterprise systems. The widespread deployment of affected CA products across multiple versions and product lines increases the potential attack surface significantly.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the latest security patches provided by CA Technologies, which would address the environment variable handling flaw in the Common Services framework. System administrators should also implement strict environment variable controls and monitoring for unauthorized modifications to critical system variables. The principle of least privilege should be enforced by ensuring that CA applications run with minimal required privileges and that environment variable injection points are properly validated. Additionally, network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect anomalous privilege escalation activities. Security teams should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments across all affected CA product versions and implement continuous monitoring for similar privilege escalation vulnerabilities. The ATT&CK framework suggests implementing defensive measures such as process monitoring, environment variable integrity checking, and privilege level enforcement to prevent exploitation of such vulnerabilities. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be performed to identify and remediate similar weaknesses in the broader enterprise environment.