CVE-2016-6657 in Cloud Foundry Elastic Runtime
Summary
by MITRE
An open redirect vulnerability has been detected with some Pivotal Cloud Foundry Elastic Runtime components. Users of affected versions should apply the following mitigation: Upgrade PCF Elastic Runtime 1.8.x versions to 1.8.12 or later. Upgrade PCF Ops Manager 1.7.x versions to 1.7.18 or later and 1.8.x versions to 1.8.10 or later.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/09/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-6657 represents a critical open redirect flaw within Pivotal Cloud Foundry Elastic Runtime components that poses significant security risks to organizations relying on these platforms. This issue affects the authentication and authorization mechanisms of the cloud infrastructure, potentially allowing malicious actors to exploit the redirect functionality to deceive users into visiting unintended destinations. The vulnerability specifically impacts the user session management and authentication flows within the Elastic Runtime environment, creating opportunities for phishing attacks and credential theft.
The technical implementation flaw stems from insufficient validation of redirect URLs within the authentication handlers of the affected Pivotal Cloud Foundry components. When users attempt to authenticate or navigate through the system, the application fails to properly sanitize or validate the destination parameters that control where users are redirected after successful authentication. This weakness allows attackers to craft malicious URLs that redirect users to attacker-controlled domains while maintaining the appearance of legitimate system navigation. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and affects the core authentication flow, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited without requiring elevated privileges or specialized knowledge of the underlying infrastructure.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple redirection attacks and can result in comprehensive security breaches within Pivotal Cloud Foundry environments. Attackers can leverage this flaw to conduct sophisticated phishing campaigns where users are redirected to malicious sites that appear to be legitimate system interfaces, potentially capturing credentials or sensitive data. The vulnerability affects organizations using affected versions of both PCF Elastic Runtime and PCF Ops Manager, creating widespread exposure across enterprise cloud deployments. Organizations may experience unauthorized access to sensitive applications and data, potential data exfiltration, and compromise of user sessions that could lead to broader system infiltration.
The mitigation strategy requires immediate action to upgrade affected components to patched versions as specified in the advisory. Organizations must upgrade PCF Elastic Runtime 1.8.x versions to 1.8.12 or later, while simultaneously updating PCF Ops Manager from 1.7.x versions to 1.7.18 or later and 1.8.x versions to 1.8.10 or later. This remediation process should be executed with careful planning to minimize service disruption while ensuring complete protection against the vulnerability. The upgrade process involves comprehensive testing of the updated components to verify that existing applications and services continue to function correctly. Security teams should also implement monitoring solutions to detect any potential exploitation attempts and conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify any other related components that may be susceptible to similar flaws. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-601 open redirect weakness classification and represents a significant concern under the ATT&CK framework's credential access and initial access tactics, particularly targeting the authentication bypass and phishing attack vectors.