CVE-2022-0708 in Mattermost
Summary
by MITRE • 02/21/2022
Mattermost 6.3.0 and earlier fails to protect email addresses of the creator of the team via one of the APIs, which allows authenticated team members to access this information resulting in sensitive & private information disclosure.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/25/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-0708 affects Mattermost versions 6.3.0 and earlier, representing a critical information disclosure flaw within the platform's access control mechanisms. This vulnerability specifically targets the protection of email addresses belonging to team creators, exposing sensitive user information through improper API access controls. The issue stems from insufficient authorization checks within the Mattermost application's API endpoints, allowing authenticated users to bypass normal access restrictions and retrieve confidential email addresses of team administrators or creators.
From a technical perspective, the vulnerability manifests as a failure in the application's privilege escalation controls, where the system does not adequately verify user permissions before exposing sensitive data through API calls. This flaw operates under the broader category of insufficient authorization checks, which aligns with CWE-285, representing a fundamental weakness in access control mechanisms. The vulnerability specifically impacts the team creation and management APIs where the system should enforce strict access controls to prevent unauthorized disclosure of user information. Attackers with valid authentication credentials can exploit this weakness to enumerate email addresses of team creators, potentially enabling targeted phishing attacks, social engineering attempts, or further credential compromise efforts.
The operational impact of CVE-2022-0708 extends beyond simple information disclosure, creating potential vectors for advanced persistent threats and credential harvesting campaigns. When team creators' email addresses are exposed, threat actors can leverage this information for spear-phishing operations, increasing the likelihood of successful social engineering attacks against privileged users. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations relying on Mattermost for secure communication channels, as the exposure of team creator email addresses undermines the platform's security posture and user privacy protections. The disclosure of such information can lead to cascading security issues, especially in environments where email addresses serve as primary identifiers for user authentication or account recovery processes.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to Mattermost versions 6.3.1 or later, where the vulnerability has been addressed through proper access control enforcement. System administrators should also conduct thorough security audits of their Mattermost deployments to identify any potential exploitation attempts and monitor for suspicious API access patterns. The implementation of additional network-level controls such as API rate limiting and access logging can help detect and prevent abuse of this vulnerability. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving credential access and reconnaissance activities, specifically targeting the collection of user information to facilitate more sophisticated attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing principle of least privilege controls and regular security assessments to prevent similar authorization bypass vulnerabilities from emerging in their systems.