CVE-2016-1597 in Access Governance Suite
Summary
by MITRE
A logged-in user in NetIQ Access Governance Suite 6.0 through 6.4 could escalate privileges to administrator.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/11/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-1597 represents a critical privilege escalation flaw within NetIQ Access Governance Suite versions 6.0 through 6.4. This issue affects authenticated users who already possess login credentials to the system, creating a significant security risk where legitimate users can elevate their privileges to administrative level access without proper authorization. The vulnerability stems from insufficient access controls and improper privilege validation mechanisms within the application's authentication and authorization framework.
The technical implementation of this flaw involves a weakness in the privilege management system where the application fails to properly verify user permissions when executing administrative functions. Attackers can exploit this by leveraging their existing authenticated session to perform operations that should be restricted to administrators only. This typically occurs through manipulation of session tokens, parameter tampering, or exploitation of insecure direct object references that allow unauthorized access to administrative functions. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 which addresses improper access control, specifically focusing on insufficient authorization checks that permit unauthorized privilege elevation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it allows attackers with minimal initial access to gain full administrative control over the NetIQ Access Governance Suite environment. This elevated access enables malicious actors to modify user permissions, access sensitive data, manipulate access governance policies, and potentially compromise the entire access control infrastructure. The affected system could suffer from data breaches, unauthorized modifications to access controls, and potential lateral movement within the network as administrators often have broad system privileges. This vulnerability directly impacts the principle of least privilege and can lead to complete system compromise.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patches and updates, implementing additional access controls, and conducting thorough security reviews of the access governance policies. Network segmentation and monitoring of administrative activities should be enhanced to detect suspicious privilege escalation attempts. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under privilege escalation techniques, specifically targeting T1068 which involves exploiting vulnerabilities to gain elevated privileges. Security teams should also consider implementing role-based access controls and regular privilege audits to minimize the impact of such vulnerabilities in the future.