CVE-2019-6620 in BIG-IP
Summary
by MITRE
On BIG-IP 14.1.0-14.1.0.5, 14.0.0-14.0.0.5, 13.0.0-13.1.1.4, 12.1.0-12.1.4.1, and 11.5.1-11.6.4 and BIG-IQ 6.0.0-6.1.0 and 5.1.0-5.4.0, an undisclosed iControl REST worker vulnerable to command injection for an Administrator user.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/15/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-6620 represents a critical command injection flaw within F5 Networks BIG-IP and BIG-IQ platforms across multiple versions. This vulnerability specifically affects the iControl REST worker component, which serves as a critical interface for managing and configuring F5 appliances. The flaw allows authenticated administrator users to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system, fundamentally compromising the security posture of affected systems. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient input validation and sanitization within the iControl REST API endpoints, creating an attack vector that bypasses normal authentication mechanisms and directly targets the system's command execution capabilities.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability stems from improper handling of user-supplied input within the iControl REST worker processes. When administrator users submit crafted requests through the REST API, the system fails to properly sanitize or validate the input parameters before passing them to underlying system commands. This creates a classic command injection scenario where malicious input can be interpreted and executed as shell commands with the privileges of the iControl REST worker process. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the administrative level, meaning that successful exploitation provides attackers with full administrative control over the affected appliance, including the ability to modify configurations, access sensitive data, and potentially establish persistent access.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses severe risks to organizations relying on F5 BIG-IP and BIG-IQ appliances for their network infrastructure security. The ability to execute arbitrary commands as an administrator user effectively grants attackers complete control over the appliance, potentially enabling them to pivot to other systems within the network, exfiltrate sensitive information, or disrupt critical services. The vulnerability affects multiple major versions of F5 products, indicating a widespread exposure across different generations of appliances. Organizations utilizing these systems face significant risk of data breaches, service disruption, and potential compromise of their entire network security infrastructure. The vulnerability's impact is further amplified by the fact that it requires only administrative authentication, which may be obtained through various means including credential theft or social engineering attacks.
Security mitigations for CVE-2019-6620 should focus on immediate patching of affected systems with the vendor-provided security updates. Organizations should also implement network segmentation to limit access to iControl REST endpoints, restrict administrative access through firewall rules, and monitor for suspicious API activity. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-77 and CWE-94 categories related to command injection and code injection respectively, and represents a technique that attackers could leverage to achieve privilege escalation and persistent access. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1059.001 (Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell) and T1068 (Exploitation for Privilege Escalation) techniques, as it enables attackers to execute system commands with administrative privileges. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive security assessments to identify any potential exploitation attempts and implement network monitoring solutions specifically designed to detect unusual API behavior patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts.