CVE-2022-23765 in IPTIME NAS
Summary
by MITRE • 08/18/2022
This vulnerability occured by sending a malicious POST request to a specific page while logged in random user from some family of IPTIME NAS. Remote attackers can steal root privileges by changing the password of the root through a POST request.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/18/2022
This vulnerability represents a critical privilege escalation flaw affecting certain models of IPTIME NAS devices that allows remote attackers to gain administrative control through a carefully crafted POST request. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and authentication checks within the web interface's password change functionality. When a logged-in user submits a malicious POST request to a specific endpoint, the system fails to properly verify the request parameters, enabling unauthorized modification of the root account password. This issue demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the application's security architecture where privilege boundaries are not properly enforced, allowing lateral movement from a standard user session to full administrative control.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the exploitation of a weak authentication mechanism that does not adequately validate the identity of the user attempting to modify administrative credentials. The POST request payload contains manipulated parameters that bypass normal authentication flows, enabling an attacker to submit a request that appears legitimate but actually changes the root password to an attacker-controlled value. This flaw operates at the application layer and leverages the trust relationship between the web interface and the underlying system, where the system accepts the request without proper verification of the user's authorization level or the integrity of the submitted data. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication issues, and represents a clear violation of the principle of least privilege as defined in cybersecurity best practices.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a severe risk landscape for affected IPTIME NAS deployments as it allows complete compromise of the device without requiring physical access or prior authentication. Once exploited, attackers can establish persistent access to the network infrastructure, potentially enabling further lateral movement within the network, data exfiltration, or use of the device as a pivot point for attacking other systems. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors can exploit this vulnerability from anywhere on the internet, making it particularly dangerous for organizations that expose their NAS devices to public networks or fail to implement proper network segmentation. This vulnerability also represents a significant concern for compliance requirements as it could lead to violations of data protection regulations and security standards such as those outlined in the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
The mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include immediate firmware updates from IPTIME to address the authentication bypass flaw, along with network segmentation to isolate NAS devices from critical network segments. Organizations should implement proper access controls including multi-factor authentication for administrative interfaces, network monitoring to detect anomalous POST request patterns, and regular security assessments to identify similar vulnerabilities. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this type of vulnerability under T1078 which covers valid accounts and T1566 which covers credential harvesting, highlighting the importance of monitoring for unusual authentication activity and implementing robust access control measures. Additionally, network administrators should consider implementing web application firewalls to detect and block malicious POST requests targeting known vulnerable endpoints, and establish incident response procedures specifically for handling privilege escalation attacks to minimize potential damage from exploitation.