CVE-2018-6959 in vRealize Automation
Summary
by MITRE
VMware vRealize Automation (vRA) prior to 7.4.0 contains a vulnerability in the handling of session IDs. Exploitation of this issue may lead to the hijacking of a valid vRA user s session.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/24/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-6959 affects VMware vRealize Automation versions prior to 7.4.0, specifically targeting the session management component of the platform. This issue represents a significant security weakness that could allow unauthorized users to gain access to legitimate user sessions within the vRA environment. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of session identifiers, which creates opportunities for session hijacking attacks. Organizations utilizing affected versions of vRA face potential unauthorized access to their virtual infrastructure management capabilities, compromising the integrity and confidentiality of their cloud management operations.
The technical flaw manifests in the insufficient validation and management of session identifiers within the vRA platform. When users authenticate to the system, the application generates session tokens that should remain unique and secure throughout the user's interaction period. However, the vulnerable implementation fails to properly secure these session identifiers, potentially allowing attackers to predict or extract session tokens through various attack vectors. This weakness aligns with CWE-384, which addresses session management vulnerabilities where applications fail to properly handle session identifiers. The improper session handling creates a pathway for attackers to impersonate legitimate users and access restricted functionalities within the vRA environment.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it could enable attackers to perform privileged operations within the vRA platform. Once a session is hijacked, malicious actors could manipulate virtual machines, deploy new resources, modify existing configurations, and access sensitive data through the compromised user account. This represents a critical threat to cloud infrastructure management, as vRA serves as a central control point for virtualization and cloud provisioning activities. The vulnerability undermines the fundamental security model of the platform, potentially allowing attackers to escalate privileges and gain broader access to the underlying virtual infrastructure. From an attacker perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1548.002 which involves bypassing system security measures to gain unauthorized access to resources.
Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation by upgrading to VMware vRealize Automation version 7.4.0 or later, which contains the necessary patches to address the session management vulnerability. Additionally, implementing proper session management practices including secure token generation, session timeout mechanisms, and regular session validation can help mitigate the risk. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect suspicious authentication patterns and potential session hijacking attempts. Security teams should also conduct regular vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate similar session management weaknesses in other applications and systems within their infrastructure. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing to ensure that the upgrade does not introduce compatibility issues with existing workflows and integrations within the vRA environment.