CVE-2018-7065 in ClearPass Policy Manager
Summary
by MITRE
An authenticated SQL injection vulnerability in Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager can lead to privilege escalation. All versions of ClearPass are affected by multiple authenticated SQL injection vulnerabilities. In each case, an authenticated administrative user of any type could exploit this vulnerability to gain access to "appadmin" credentials, leading to complete cluster compromise. Resolution: Fixed in 6.7.6 and 6.6.10-hotfix.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/19/2020
The CVE-2018-7065 vulnerability represents a critical authenticated SQL injection flaw within Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager that fundamentally undermines the security posture of affected systems. This vulnerability exists across all versions of the ClearPass platform, making it particularly concerning given the widespread deployment of this network access control solution in enterprise environments. The flaw specifically targets the authentication and authorization mechanisms of the system, allowing an attacker who has already gained administrative access to escalate privileges and obtain the highest level of administrative credentials.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper input validation within the ClearPass Policy Manager's database interaction layers. When authenticated administrative users perform certain operations within the system, the application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows an attacker to inject malicious SQL code that can manipulate the underlying database operations. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-89, which specifically addresses SQL injection flaws, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1548.001 for privilege escalation through abuse of credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching, as it enables complete system compromise through a single exploitation event. An authenticated administrative user, regardless of their specific role type, can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and obtain "appadmin" credentials, which represent the highest level of administrative access within the ClearPass environment. This level of access provides attackers with complete control over the entire policy management cluster, including the ability to modify network access policies, view sensitive user data, and potentially establish persistent backdoors within the network infrastructure.
The exploitation of this vulnerability follows a predictable pattern where an attacker with existing administrative credentials can craft malicious requests that bypass normal access controls and directly manipulate the database to retrieve or modify administrative credentials. This represents a particularly dangerous scenario because it allows attackers to maintain persistence even if they initially gain access through other means, as they can always escalate to the highest administrative level. The vulnerability's resolution through versions 6.7.6 and 6.6.10-hotfix demonstrates the severity of the issue, as Aruba recognized the need for immediate remediation to address this privilege escalation vector.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should prioritize immediate deployment of the available patches to prevent exploitation attempts, while also implementing network monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts. Security teams should conduct thorough assessments of their ClearPass deployments to identify any unauthorized administrative accounts that might have been compromised through this vulnerability. The incident highlights the importance of proper input validation and the principle of least privilege in security-critical applications, as well as the necessity of regular security assessments to identify and remediate authentication and authorization vulnerabilities that could lead to complete system compromise.