CVE-2020-8464 in InterScan Web Security Virtual Appliance
Summary
by MITRE • 12/18/2020
A vulnerability in Trend Micro InterScan Web Security Virtual Appliance 6.5 SP2 could allow an attacker to send requests that appear to come from the localhost which could expose the product's admin interface to users who would not normally have access.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/18/2020
This vulnerability resides within Trend Micro InterScan Web Security Virtual Appliance version 6.5 Service Pack 2, representing a significant security flaw that undermines the appliance's access control mechanisms. The core technical issue involves improper handling of request source validation, specifically failing to properly authenticate or verify the origin of incoming requests. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious requests that spoof localhost origins, effectively bypassing the normal authentication and authorization checks that should prevent unauthorized access to administrative functions.
The vulnerability stems from a lack of proper source address validation within the web application's request processing pipeline, which aligns with common weaknesses described in CWE-284 - Improper Access Control. When requests arrive with spoofed localhost headers or IP addresses, the system fails to properly validate whether these requests actually originate from the local machine or if they are being generated by external malicious actors. This creates a dangerous scenario where unauthorized users can potentially gain access to administrative interfaces that should only be accessible to legitimate administrators within the trusted network environment.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it directly compromises the principle of least privilege and could allow attackers to perform critical administrative functions without proper authentication. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could potentially modify security policies, add or remove users, access sensitive configuration data, and manipulate the web filtering rules that protect the network. This represents a critical escalation from a simple access control bypass to a full administrative compromise, as demonstrated in various ATT&CK framework techniques related to privilege escalation and lateral movement.
The exploitation of this vulnerability typically involves crafting HTTP requests with spoofed headers or IP addresses that appear to originate from localhost, leveraging the appliance's failure to properly validate source addresses. Security researchers have identified that this issue affects the appliance's administrative web interface, which often listens on well-known ports such as 8080 or 443 for management access. The vulnerability could be particularly dangerous in environments where the appliance is deployed without proper network segmentation, potentially allowing attackers to pivot from a compromised endpoint directly into the administrative interface.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including deploying network-level restrictions that prevent external access to the appliance's administrative ports, implementing strict firewall rules that only allow localhost access to management interfaces, and ensuring that the appliance is properly isolated within the network infrastructure. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing intrusion detection systems that can monitor for unusual patterns of requests originating from localhost addresses that might indicate exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments and proper network architecture reviews are essential to prevent such vulnerabilities from being exploited in production environments where they could lead to complete system compromise and unauthorized access to sensitive network filtering configurations.