CVE-2024-10396 in OpenAFS
Summary
by MITRE • 11/14/2024
An authenticated user can provide a malformed ACL to the fileserver's StoreACL RPC, causing the fileserver to crash, possibly expose uninitialized memory, and possibly store garbage data in the audit log. Malformed ACLs provided in responses to client FetchACL RPCs can cause client processes to crash and possibly expose uninitialized memory into other ACLs stored on the server.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/24/2025
This vulnerability exists within file server implementations where access control lists are managed through remote procedure calls. The flaw manifests when authenticated users can manipulate the Access Control List data structure during StoreACL operations, leading to system instability and potential information disclosure. The vulnerability specifically targets the handling of malformed ACL data within the fileserver's RPC processing mechanisms, creating a pathway for both denial of service and information leakage attacks. The issue stems from inadequate input validation and memory management practices in the ACL processing pipeline.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the manipulation of Access Control List structures during RPC communications between client and server components. When a malformed ACL is submitted through the StoreACL RPC endpoint, the fileserver's processing logic fails to properly validate or sanitize the input data before storing it in memory. This processing failure can result in memory corruption, causing the server process to terminate unexpectedly. The vulnerability extends to audit logging mechanisms where corrupted data might be written to log files, potentially exposing uninitialized memory contents that could contain sensitive information from other processes or previous operations. Additionally, the malformed data can propagate through the system, affecting subsequent ACL operations and potentially corrupting other stored access control information.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant for organizations relying on file server infrastructure for access control management. An authenticated attacker with sufficient privileges can trigger system crashes that result in denial of service conditions, disrupting file access for legitimate users. The potential exposure of uninitialized memory creates additional security concerns as this data might contain sensitive information from other processes, system memory contents, or previous user sessions. The audit log corruption aspect compounds the security implications by potentially hiding malicious activities or creating false positives in security monitoring systems. The vulnerability affects both server-side and client-side components, as the same malformed data can cause client processes to crash when processing responses from the fileserver.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing comprehensive input validation and sanitization mechanisms for all ACL data processing operations. The fileserver implementation must validate ACL structures before storing them in memory, ensuring proper data format and content restrictions are enforced. Memory management practices should include proper initialization of memory regions and implementation of secure coding practices to prevent uninitialized memory exposure. The system should also implement robust error handling and graceful degradation mechanisms to prevent crashes from affecting overall system availability. Additionally, audit logging should be designed with integrity checks to detect and prevent corruption of log data. Network segmentation and access controls should limit the scope of potential exploitation, while regular security updates and code reviews should address similar vulnerabilities in related systems. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-121 and CWE-122 categories related to buffer overflow and memory corruption issues, and may be exploited using techniques from the attack pattern catalog under ATT&CK framework category TA0040 for privilege escalation and TA0005 for defense evasion through system instability.