CVE-2016-4475 in Foreman
Summary
by MITRE
The (1) Organization and (2) Locations APIs and UIs in Foreman before 1.11.4 and 1.12.x before 1.12.0-RC3 allow remote authenticated users to bypass organization and location restrictions and (a) read, (b) edit, or (c) delete arbitrary organizations or locations via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/14/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-4475 represents a critical authorization bypass flaw in the Foreman management platform, a widely used open-source tool for provisioning and managing IT infrastructure. This security weakness affects Foreman versions prior to 1.11.4 and 1.12.x before 1.12.0-RC3, specifically targeting the Organization and Locations APIs and user interfaces. The flaw allows authenticated attackers to circumvent the intended access controls that should restrict users to their designated organizational boundaries, creating a significant risk for multi-tenant environments where isolation between different organizational units is paramount. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user permissions when processing requests to manipulate organizational and location data through both programmatic interfaces and web-based user interfaces.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a failure in the authorization mechanism that should enforce role-based access controls within Foreman's multi-tenant architecture. Attackers with valid credentials can exploit unspecified vectors to perform unauthorized operations including reading, editing, or deleting organizations and locations that they should not have access to based on their assigned roles and permissions. This represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and demonstrates a fundamental flaw in how the system validates user intentions against the configured organizational boundaries. The vulnerability essentially allows privilege escalation through unauthorized access to administrative functions that should be restricted to specific user roles within defined organizational contexts.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial for organizations relying on Foreman for infrastructure management, particularly those operating in environments with multiple departments or client organizations that require strict isolation. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can gain access to sensitive organizational information, modify critical infrastructure configurations, or delete essential organizational units, potentially causing service disruptions or data loss. The risk is compounded in large enterprises where Foreman might manage thousands of systems across multiple business units, as the attacker could access data belonging to other organizations within the same Foreman instance. This vulnerability directly impacts the integrity and confidentiality of organizational data and can lead to unauthorized access to critical infrastructure management functions.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to Foreman versions 1.11.4 or 1.12.0-RC3 and later, which contain the necessary patches to address the authorization bypass. Security administrators should also review and validate existing user permissions and roles to ensure that access controls are properly configured. Additional protective measures include implementing network segmentation to limit access to Foreman systems, enabling detailed logging of API and UI access attempts, and conducting regular security audits of the platform configuration. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses inadequate access control mechanisms, and represents a typical example of how authorization flaws can lead to privilege escalation in multi-tenant systems. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a privilege escalation technique through unauthorized access to administrative functions, emphasizing the importance of proper access control implementation in enterprise management platforms.