CVE-2017-15085 in Gluster Storage
Summary
by MITRE
It was discovered that the fix for CVE-2017-12150 was not properly shipped in erratum RHSA-2017:2858 for Red Hat Gluster Storage 3.3 for RHEL 6.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/10/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-15085 represents a critical regression in the security patching process for Red Hat Gluster Storage 3.3 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 systems. This issue emerged from the improper implementation of a previous security fix for CVE-2017-12150, which was intended to address a specific security weakness in the distributed storage system. The root cause lies in the erratum RHSA-2017:2858 failing to properly incorporate the necessary security mitigations, leaving systems vulnerable to the original threat vector that the patch was designed to prevent.
The technical flaw stems from a failure in the software update distribution mechanism where the security patch for CVE-2017-12150 was either omitted entirely or incorrectly implemented within the erratum package. This creates a scenario where administrators who applied the RHSA-2017:2858 update believe their systems are protected against the vulnerability, when in reality the security gap remains unaddressed. The vulnerability affects the core storage operations within GlusterFS, potentially allowing unauthorized access to storage resources or enabling privilege escalation attacks depending on the specific nature of the original CVE-2017-12150 flaw.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a false sense of security for system administrators who rely on official Red Hat errata for their security patching processes. Organizations may experience significant security exposure as their storage infrastructure remains vulnerable to attacks that could compromise data integrity, availability, and confidentiality. The issue particularly affects environments where Red Hat Gluster Storage is used for critical data storage operations, potentially leading to unauthorized data access or system compromise. This vulnerability also demonstrates the importance of thorough regression testing in security patch deployment processes, as the failure to properly implement a security fix can create more dangerous situations than the original vulnerability itself.
The mitigation strategy for CVE-2017-15085 requires immediate verification of the applied security updates and potentially manual implementation of the correct patch for CVE-2017-12150. System administrators should consult Red Hat's official documentation and security advisories to ensure proper patching procedures are followed. Organizations should implement additional monitoring for suspicious storage access patterns and consider network segmentation to limit potential attack surface. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 which addresses improper access control issues, and may map to ATT&CK techniques related to privilege escalation and credential access. This case highlights the critical need for comprehensive validation of security patches before deployment and emphasizes the importance of maintaining awareness of patching regressions in enterprise storage environments.