CVE-2023-4320 in Satellite
Summary
by MITRE • 12/18/2023
An arithmetic overflow flaw was found in Satellite when creating a new personal access token. This flaw allows an attacker who uses this arithmetic overflow to create personal access tokens that are valid indefinitely, resulting in damage to the system's integrity.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/27/2026
This vulnerability represents a critical arithmetic overflow flaw within the Satellite system's personal access token generation mechanism. The issue manifests when the system processes token creation requests, where integer overflow conditions occur during calculations related to token expiration timing or validation parameters. Such arithmetic overflows typically arise from insufficient input validation and boundary checking in the token generation algorithm, allowing malicious actors to manipulate the underlying mathematical operations to produce tokens with invalid expiration states.
The technical exploitation of this flaw enables attackers to generate personal access tokens that bypass normal expiration mechanisms, creating tokens with indefinite validity periods. This represents a severe compromise of the system's authentication and authorization framework, as it fundamentally undermines the time-based security controls that protect against unauthorized access. The overflow condition likely occurs during timestamp calculations or token lifetime computations where the system attempts to perform arithmetic operations that exceed the maximum representable value for the data type being used.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a persistent backdoor within the Satellite system's security infrastructure. Once exploited, attackers can maintain indefinite access to protected resources without detection, potentially leading to data breaches, unauthorized system modifications, and complete compromise of sensitive information. The damage to system integrity is particularly concerning as it allows for long-term persistence while evading normal monitoring and audit mechanisms that would typically detect suspicious access patterns or expired token usage.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-190, which specifically addresses integer overflow and underflow conditions in software systems. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this flaw maps to privilege escalation techniques through credential manipulation, specifically targeting T1566.002 for credential access and T1078 for valid accounts. The exploitation path involves manipulating token generation parameters to trigger the arithmetic overflow condition, which then produces tokens with malformed expiration values that the system accepts as legitimate.
Recommended mitigations include implementing comprehensive input validation for all token creation parameters, utilizing safe integer arithmetic operations with proper overflow checking, and establishing robust boundary conditions for token lifetime calculations. The system should employ defensive programming practices including explicit type checking, bounds verification, and secure coding standards to prevent similar issues in future implementations. Additionally, regular security auditing of mathematical operations within authentication systems and implementation of automated testing for edge cases in numeric computations would significantly reduce the risk of similar vulnerabilities occurring.