CVE-2021-35592 in MySQL Cluster
Summary
by MITRE • 10/20/2021
Vulnerability in the MySQL Cluster product of Oracle MySQL (component: Cluster: General). Supported versions that are affected are 7.5.23 and prior, 7.6.19 and prior and 8.0.26 and prior. Difficult to exploit vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with access to the physical communication segment attached to the hardware where the MySQL Cluster executes to compromise MySQL Cluster. Successful attacks require human interaction from a person other than the attacker. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of MySQL Cluster. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 6.3 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/26/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-35592 represents a significant security flaw within Oracle MySQL Cluster's implementation, specifically affecting versions 7.5.23 and earlier, 7.6.19 and earlier, and 8.0.26 and earlier. This vulnerability resides within the Cluster: General component of the MySQL Cluster product, which serves as the foundational architecture for distributed database operations. The affected versions indicate a widespread impact across multiple release lines, suggesting this flaw has persisted through several major version iterations and represents a fundamental architectural weakness rather than a transient issue.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient security controls within the communication protocols used by MySQL Cluster nodes to interact with each other. Attackers exploiting this weakness must possess high-privileged access to the physical communication segment that connects the hardware infrastructure where MySQL Cluster operates. This requirement for physical access to network segments places the vulnerability in the context of a sophisticated attack scenario where the adversary has already achieved a significant foothold within the target environment. The CVSS score of 6.3 reflects the moderate severity of this flaw, with high impacts across all three core security principles: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The attack vector AV:A indicates that physical access to the communication segment is required, while the high attack complexity AC:H suggests that the exploitation process itself requires specialized knowledge and conditions to execute successfully.
The operational impact of successful exploitation of CVE-2021-35592 can be catastrophic for organizations relying on MySQL Cluster for their database infrastructure. A successful compromise would result in complete takeover of the MySQL Cluster, effectively granting attackers full control over the distributed database system. This takeover capability extends beyond simple data access to encompass complete administrative control, allowing malicious actors to modify database contents, alter access controls, manipulate data integrity, and potentially disrupt availability through various denial-of-service mechanisms. The requirement for human interaction from someone other than the attacker indicates that social engineering or additional pre-attack reconnaissance may be necessary to facilitate the exploitation process, though this does not mitigate the severity of the potential impact once the vulnerability is successfully leveraged.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies focusing on network segmentation and access controls to limit physical access to the communication segments where MySQL Cluster nodes operate. The principle of least privilege should be enforced at both network and system levels to minimize the potential impact of such vulnerabilities. Regular security assessments and monitoring of network traffic patterns can help detect anomalous behavior that might indicate exploitation attempts. Given the vulnerability's classification and its relationship to physical network access requirements, this flaw aligns with ATT&CK technique T1046 which involves discovering or exploiting network services, and CWE-284 which addresses improper access control mechanisms. Organizations should prioritize patch management to upgrade to unaffected versions of MySQL Cluster, while also implementing additional network-level security controls such as intrusion detection systems and network access control policies to protect against potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's characteristics also suggest that defensive measures should include monitoring for unauthorized physical access to network infrastructure and implementing robust network segmentation to isolate critical database components from general network traffic.