CVE-2015-5245 in Ceph
Summary
by MITRE
CRLF injection vulnerability in the Ceph Object Gateway (aka radosgw or RGW) in Ceph before 0.94.4 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary HTTP headers and conduct HTTP response splitting attacks via a crafted bucket name.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/28/2022
The CVE-2015-5245 vulnerability represents a critical CRLF injection flaw within the Ceph Object Gateway component that serves as a RESTful interface for the Ceph distributed storage system. This vulnerability affects Ceph versions prior to 0.94.4 and specifically targets the radosgw service responsible for handling HTTP requests and responses. The flaw manifests when the system processes bucket names without proper sanitization of carriage return and line feed characters, creating an avenue for malicious actors to manipulate HTTP headers and execute response splitting attacks.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through the manipulation of bucket names that contain CRLF sequences, typically represented as %0d%0a or \r\n in URL-encoded formats. When the Ceph Object Gateway processes these malformed bucket names, it fails to properly validate or escape the input, allowing attackers to inject additional HTTP headers into the response. This injection capability enables attackers to manipulate the HTTP response structure, potentially leading to various security consequences including cache poisoning, session hijacking, and cross-site scripting attacks. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically targets the HTTP protocol handling within the gateway service.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple header injection, as it enables sophisticated attack vectors that can compromise the integrity of web applications relying on Ceph storage. Attackers can leverage this weakness to perform HTTP response splitting, where they inject malicious headers that can redirect users to phishing sites or inject malicious content into web responses. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous in environments where Ceph RGW serves as a gateway for web applications, as it can be exploited to manipulate the entire HTTP communication flow. This weakness can also facilitate more advanced attacks such as cross-site request forgery and man-in-the-middle scenarios that leverage the compromised header injection capabilities.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2015-5245 require immediate patching of Ceph installations to version 0.94.4 or later, which includes proper input validation and sanitization of bucket names. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation at all entry points, particularly focusing on HTTP header processing and URL parameter handling. The fix addresses the core issue by implementing proper sanitization of CRLF characters in bucket names and ensuring that all user-supplied input is properly escaped before being processed. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious CRLF sequences in HTTP requests, while monitoring for unusual header injection patterns in system logs. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-113, which describes improper neutralization of CRLF characters in HTTP headers, and corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1190, which covers exploit public-facing application vulnerabilities.
The broader implications of this vulnerability highlight the importance of proper input validation in distributed storage systems and demonstrate how seemingly minor flaws in HTTP handling can lead to significant security consequences. Organizations using Ceph storage solutions must conduct comprehensive security assessments of their gateway configurations and ensure that all components are updated to secure versions. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical need for robust sanitization practices in web-facing services and underscores the necessity of implementing defense-in-depth strategies that include both application-level fixes and network-level monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts.