CVE-2020-3956 in Cloud Director
Summary
by MITRE
VMware Cloud Director 10.0.x before 10.0.0.2, 9.7.0.x before 9.7.0.5, 9.5.0.x before 9.5.0.6, and 9.1.0.x before 9.1.0.4 do not properly handle input leading to a code injection vulnerability. An authenticated actor may be able to send malicious traffic to VMware Cloud Director which may lead to arbitrary remote code execution. This vulnerability can be exploited through the HTML5- and Flex-based UIs, the API Explorer interface and API access.
Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/04/2024
This vulnerability resides in VMware Cloud Director's handling of user input across multiple interface layers, representing a critical code injection flaw that could enable remote code execution. The affected versions include VMware Cloud Director 10.0.x before 10.0.0.2, 9.7.0.x before 9.7.0.5, 9.5.0.x before 9.5.0.6, and 9.1.0.x before 9.1.0.4, indicating a widespread issue affecting multiple major release branches. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and sanitization mechanisms within the application's processing pipeline, allowing malicious actors to inject arbitrary code through carefully crafted inputs.
The technical flaw manifests when authenticated users submit malicious payloads through various entry points including HTML5-based user interfaces, Flex-based user interfaces, API Explorer interface, and direct API access methods. This multi-vector attack surface significantly increases the exploitability potential, as attackers can leverage different access points to deliver malicious input. The vulnerability specifically impacts how the system processes user-supplied data, failing to properly sanitize or validate inputs before processing, which creates opportunities for code injection attacks. This weakness aligns with CWE-94, which describes the improper execution of code due to inadequate input validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe, as it allows authenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code remotely on the affected VMware Cloud Director instances. This capability could enable attackers to gain full system control, potentially leading to data breaches, service disruption, or lateral movement within cloud environments. The vulnerability's exploitation through multiple interfaces increases the attack surface significantly, making it more difficult to defend against and harder to detect. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to establish persistent access, escalate privileges, or compromise other systems within the cloud infrastructure that rely on VMware Cloud Director for service delivery.
Organizations should immediately apply the vendor-provided patches to all affected versions of VMware Cloud Director to remediate this vulnerability. The patching process should include comprehensive testing to ensure that updates do not disrupt existing services or workflows. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit access to the VMware Cloud Director interfaces, particularly restricting administrative access to only trusted users and systems. Additionally, organizations should monitor for suspicious API activity and implement logging mechanisms to detect potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's classification under ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and scripting interpreter indicates that attackers may attempt to execute commands through the compromised system, making proactive monitoring and detection crucial for early identification of exploitation attempts.