CVE-2022-1813 in reNgine
Summary
by MITRE • 05/22/2022
OS Command Injection in GitHub repository yogeshojha/rengine prior to 1.2.0.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/29/2022
The vulnerability CVE-2022-1813 represents a critical operating system command injection flaw discovered in the GitHub repository yogeshojha/rengine prior to version 1.2.0. This repository serves as a reconnaissance engine designed for automated security testing and information gathering activities. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and sanitization within the application's command execution mechanisms, creating a pathway for malicious actors to inject and execute arbitrary operating system commands. The flaw specifically affects how user-provided input is processed and passed to system-level functions, bypassing normal security controls that should prevent unauthorized command execution.
This vulnerability operates under the Common Weakness Enumeration CWE-77 category, which specifically addresses command injection flaws where untrusted input is directly incorporated into operating system commands without proper sanitization or validation. The attack vector typically involves an adversary submitting malicious input through application interfaces that subsequently get processed and executed as system commands. The affected rengine application likely accepts user parameters through web forms, API endpoints, or configuration inputs that are then passed to shell execution functions. This creates a dangerous scenario where attackers can manipulate the application to execute unintended system commands, potentially gaining unauthorized access to underlying system resources.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple command execution, as it can enable attackers to perform a wide range of malicious activities including but not limited to data exfiltration, system enumeration, privilege escalation, and persistent access establishment. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to execute commands such as system information gathering, file manipulation, network scanning, or even establish reverse shells. The implications are particularly severe for a reconnaissance tool like rengine, which typically operates with elevated privileges to perform network enumeration and security testing activities. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could potentially compromise the entire infrastructure where the tool is deployed, as the injected commands would execute with the privileges of the application process.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-1813 should focus on implementing robust input validation and sanitization mechanisms throughout the application's codebase. The primary remediation involves ensuring that all user-provided input undergoes strict validation and that any potentially dangerous characters or sequences are properly escaped or filtered before being passed to system execution functions. Organizations should implement proper parameterization techniques and avoid direct command construction from user input. Additionally, privilege separation and least privilege principles should be enforced, ensuring that the application runs with minimal required permissions. The fix for this vulnerability required updating the application to version 1.2.0 or later, which included comprehensive input sanitization and command execution improvements. Security teams should also consider implementing runtime monitoring and intrusion detection systems to identify potential exploitation attempts, as the ATT&CK framework categorizes command injection attacks under the execution tactic with techniques such as command and script interpreter and legitimate credentials. Regular security assessments and code reviews should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other components of the security toolchain, particularly in applications that handle user input and execute system-level operations.