CVE-2017-2590 in Ipa
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability was found in ipa before 4.4. IdM's ca-del, ca-disable, and ca-enable commands did not properly check the user's permissions while modifying CAs in Dogtag. An authenticated, unauthorized attacker could use this flaw to delete, disable, or enable CAs causing various denial of service problems with certificate issuance, OCSP signing, and deletion of secret keys.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/27/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-2590 affects the Identity Management (IdM) system's Certificate Authority (CA) management commands within the Dogtag PKI framework. This flaw exists in ipa versions prior to 4.4 and represents a critical authorization bypass issue that undermines the security controls designed to protect certificate authority operations. The vulnerability specifically impacts the ca-del, ca-disable, and ca-enable commands which are fundamental administrative functions for managing certificate authorities within the identity infrastructure.
The technical flaw stems from insufficient permission validation within the affected commands, allowing authenticated users to perform operations on certificate authorities without proper authorization checks. This represents a classic privilege escalation vulnerability where the system fails to verify that the requesting user possesses the necessary administrative privileges to modify certificate authority configurations. The flaw operates at the command execution layer where access controls should be enforced but are instead bypassed, creating a path for unauthorized modifications to critical security infrastructure components.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted, as it enables attackers to cause various denial of service conditions within the certificate management infrastructure. When an attacker can delete, disable, or enable certificate authorities, they effectively disrupt the entire certificate issuance process and compromise the availability of security services such as OCSP signing. This disruption can cascade through the entire identity management ecosystem, affecting certificate validation, secure communications, and the overall integrity of the PKI infrastructure. The ability to delete secret keys adds an additional layer of compromise that can render existing certificates unusable and compromise the confidentiality of protected communications.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and maps to several ATT&CK techniques including privilege escalation and defense evasion. The flaw demonstrates poor least privilege enforcement and inadequate input validation within administrative command interfaces. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to ipa version 4.4 or later, implementing additional monitoring of certificate authority modifications, and reviewing access controls for administrative accounts. The vulnerability highlights the critical importance of proper access control mechanisms in cryptographic infrastructure and underscores the need for comprehensive security testing of administrative interfaces to prevent unauthorized modifications to core security components.