CVE-2022-24841 in fleet
Summary
by MITRE • 04/19/2022
fleetdm/fleet is an open source device management, built on osquery. All versions of fleet making use of the teams feature are affected by this authorization bypass issue. Fleet instances without teams, or with teams but without restricted team accounts are not affected. In affected versions a team admin can erroneously add themselves as admin, maintainer or observer on other teams. Users are advised to upgrade to version 4.13. There are no known workarounds for this issue.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/21/2022
The CVE-2022-24841 vulnerability represents a critical authorization bypass flaw within the fleetdm/fleet open source device management platform that operates on osquery technology. This security weakness specifically targets installations utilizing the teams feature functionality, creating a significant privilege escalation risk for authenticated users. The vulnerability stems from improper access control mechanisms that fail to properly validate team membership boundaries, allowing malicious actors to exploit logical flaws in the permission system. Organizations relying on fleet's team-based access controls face potential unauthorized administrative access to other teams' resources, undermining the fundamental security model designed to isolate team environments.
The technical implementation of this flaw occurs within the team management subsystem where the authorization logic incorrectly permits team administrators to manipulate access permissions for other teams. This authorization bypass enables team admins to add themselves with elevated privileges such as admin, maintainer, or observer roles on teams they should not have access to. The vulnerability exists because the system fails to properly enforce team membership boundaries during permission modification operations, creating a path for privilege escalation through manipulated team assignments. This type of flaw aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization in software systems, and represents a classic case of insufficient access control validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to potentially compromise entire fleet deployments. Team administrators who exploit this flaw could gain unauthorized access to sensitive device data, configuration information, and operational controls belonging to other teams within the same fleet instance. This creates a cascading security risk where a single compromised team admin could potentially access all teams within the deployment, undermining the intended security isolation between different operational units or departments. The vulnerability affects all versions of fleet that utilize the teams feature, making it particularly concerning for organizations that have implemented team-based access controls to manage device management responsibilities across different operational domains.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement the recommended upgrade to version 4.13, which contains the necessary patches to address the authorization bypass issue. The lack of known workarounds means that organizations cannot implement temporary mitigations while awaiting the official release, making the upgrade process critical for maintaining security posture. Security teams should conduct immediate assessments of their fleet deployments to identify installations that utilize the teams feature and verify that all instances have been updated to the patched version. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper access control implementation and the potential consequences of inadequate privilege validation in multi-tenant systems. This issue also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and credential manipulation, as the vulnerability allows unauthorized access through legitimate administrative accounts. Organizations should also review their team-based access control policies and consider implementing additional monitoring for suspicious permission changes, as this type of authorization bypass could potentially be used to maintain persistence within fleet deployments. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of proper access control validation in multi-user systems and the potential impact when such controls fail to properly enforce security boundaries.