CVE-2020-24641 in AirWave Glass
Summary
by MITRE • 01/16/2021
In Aruba AirWave Glass before 1.3.3, there is a Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability through an unauthenticated endpoint that if successfully exploited can result in disclosure of sensitive information. This can be used to perform an authentication bypass and ultimately gain administrative access on the web administrative interface.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/14/2021
The CVE-2020-24641 vulnerability represents a critical server-side request forgery flaw in Aruba AirWave Glass versions prior to 1.3.3, demonstrating a fundamental weakness in the application's input validation and request handling mechanisms. This vulnerability resides within an unauthenticated endpoint, making it particularly dangerous as it does not require any prior credentials or access privileges to exploit. The flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate the application's behavior by injecting malicious requests that can traverse the network boundary and access internal resources that should normally be protected from external exposure. Such vulnerabilities fall under CWE-918, which specifically addresses server-side request forgery conditions where applications fail to properly validate and sanitize external input before using it to construct requests to other systems.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability enables attackers to perform unauthorized access to sensitive information through the manipulation of the web application's request processing logic. When an attacker successfully exploits this flaw, they can potentially bypass authentication mechanisms by crafting malicious requests that appear legitimate to the application's internal processing. This particular vulnerability creates a pathway for attackers to escalate their privileges and ultimately gain administrative access to the web administrative interface of the AirWave Glass system. The exploitation process typically involves manipulating URL parameters or other input fields to redirect requests to internal systems or services that are not intended to be accessible from external networks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it provides attackers with a complete path to administrative control of the affected system. Once an attacker achieves administrative access, they can modify system configurations, install malicious software, access all user data, and potentially use the compromised system as a launch point for further attacks within the network. This vulnerability directly impacts the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the AirWave Glass management system, which is critical for network monitoring and security operations. The security implications are particularly severe in enterprise environments where AirWave Glass is used for wireless network management, as it could allow attackers to gain complete control over wireless infrastructure monitoring capabilities.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patch to upgrade to version 1.3.3 or later, which addresses the specific server-side request forgery flaw through proper input validation and request handling mechanisms. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit exposure of the affected system to untrusted networks, while monitoring should be enhanced to detect suspicious request patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of implementing robust input validation practices and following secure coding guidelines to prevent similar issues in future development cycles. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving credential access and privilege escalation, specifically targeting the T1078 and T1566 tactics that attackers use to establish persistent access and move laterally within compromised networks.