CVE-2017-18407 in cPanel
Summary
by MITRE
cPanel before 67.9999.103 does not enforce SSL hostname verification for the support-agreement download (SEC-279).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/18/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-18407 affects cPanel versions prior to 67.9999.103 and represents a critical security flaw in the software's SSL certificate validation mechanisms. This issue specifically impacts the support-agreement download functionality within the cPanel interface, where the system fails to properly verify SSL hostnames during secure communications. The vulnerability stems from insufficient implementation of SSL/TLS hostname verification protocols that should ensure clients validate the identity of servers they connect to during encrypted communications.
The technical flaw manifests when cPanel attempts to download support agreements from remote servers using SSL connections. Normally, SSL/TLS implementations should verify that the certificate presented by the server matches the hostname being accessed, preventing man-in-the-middle attacks and ensuring that clients communicate with legitimate servers. However, in affected cPanel versions, this verification process is bypassed or inadequately implemented, allowing attackers to potentially intercept or manipulate the download process through certificate spoofing attacks. This weakness directly violates established security protocols and creates an attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise the integrity of support agreements and potentially gain unauthorized access to sensitive system information.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data integrity concerns, as it undermines the fundamental trust model of secure communications within the cPanel environment. Attackers could leverage this flaw to execute certificate-based attacks such as SSL stripping or certificate impersonation, potentially gaining access to support agreements that may contain sensitive system information, licensing details, or configuration data. The vulnerability particularly affects organizations relying on cPanel for web hosting management, as it creates opportunities for attackers to compromise the support infrastructure and potentially escalate privileges within the hosting environment. This weakness also violates security best practices established by industry standards including those outlined in the OWASP Top Ten and NIST guidelines for secure coding and SSL/TLS implementation.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including upgrading to cPanel version 67.9999.103 or later, which includes proper SSL hostname verification enforcement for the support-agreement download functionality. System administrators should also review and strengthen their overall SSL/TLS configurations, implementing certificate pinning where appropriate and ensuring all communications with external services utilize proper hostname verification. Additional defensive measures include monitoring network traffic for suspicious SSL connections and implementing intrusion detection systems that can identify potential certificate validation bypass attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-295 which addresses improper certificate validation, and represents a significant concern under ATT&CK technique T1071.004 for application layer protocol: DNS, where attackers might exploit weak SSL validation to establish malicious connections. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of the affected cPanel installations and reduce the potential attack surface for exploitation attempts.