CVE-2016-4442 in rack-mini-profiler Gem
Summary
by MITRE
The rack-mini-profiler gem before 0.10.1 for Ruby allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information about allocated strings and objects by leveraging incorrect ordering of security checks.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/02/2022
The rack-mini-profiler gem version 0.10.0 and earlier contains a critical security vulnerability that enables remote attackers to extract sensitive information about allocated strings and objects within the application. This vulnerability stems from an improper ordering of security checks within the gem's implementation, creating a window of opportunity for adversaries to gather potentially sensitive data about the application's memory allocation patterns and object structures. The flaw specifically affects ruby applications that utilize this gem for performance profiling and monitoring purposes.
The technical nature of this vulnerability can be categorized under CWE-200, which deals with exposure of sensitive information to an unauthorized actor. The issue manifests when the gem fails to properly validate or sanitize input data before processing profiling information, allowing attackers to manipulate the profiling mechanism to disclose internal application details. The incorrect ordering of security checks means that certain validation steps occur after potentially dangerous operations, enabling information leakage through the profiling interface. This vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the application level and can be exploited without requiring elevated privileges or specialized attack vectors.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability exposes applications to significant risks including potential memory layout analysis, object reference enumeration, and allocation pattern reconnaissance. Attackers could leverage this information to craft more sophisticated attacks against the application, potentially leading to further exploitation opportunities such as buffer overflow attacks or memory corruption vulnerabilities. The sensitive information obtained through this flaw could include details about string allocations, object references, and memory structures that might aid in bypassing security controls or understanding application behavior for more targeted attacks. This vulnerability affects the confidentiality aspect of the application's security posture, as it allows unauthorized disclosure of internal application state information.
The attack surface for this vulnerability is primarily limited to ruby applications that utilize the rack-mini-profiler gem in their stack, particularly those running in production environments where profiling data might be exposed to external users or where the profiling interface is not properly secured. Organizations using this gem should consider implementing network segmentation to isolate profiling endpoints, ensuring that profiling interfaces are not accessible from untrusted networks. The recommended mitigation involves upgrading to version 0.10.1 or later of the rack-mini-profiler gem, which addresses the incorrect ordering of security checks and properly validates input data before processing profiling information. Additionally, organizations should review their application configurations to ensure that profiling features are disabled in production environments or properly restricted to authorized personnel only.
This vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including T1083 (File and Directory Discovery) and T1068 (Exploitation for Privilege Escalation) as attackers can use the leaked information to better understand the target application's memory structure and potentially escalate privileges through more sophisticated attacks. The vulnerability also represents a failure in secure coding practices and demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and security check ordering in web application development. Organizations should conduct thorough security assessments of their ruby application stacks to identify all instances of this gem and ensure proper patching and configuration management. The incident highlights the critical need for maintaining up-to-date dependencies and implementing proper security controls around profiling and monitoring tools that may inadvertently expose sensitive application information.