CVE-2024-22459 in ECS
Summary
by MITRE • 02/28/2024
Dell ECS, versions 3.6 through 3.6.2.5, and 3.7 through 3.7.0.6, and 3.8 through 3.8.0.4 versions, contain an improper access control vulnerability. A remote high privileged attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to unauthorized access to all buckets and their data within a namespace
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/28/2024
This vulnerability exists within Dell Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) platforms across multiple version ranges including 3.6 through 3.6.2.5, 3.7 through 3.7.0.6, and 3.8 through 3.8.0.4. The flaw represents a critical improper access control weakness that allows remote attackers with high privileged credentials to bypass authorization mechanisms and gain unrestricted access to all storage buckets and associated data within a specific namespace. This represents a fundamental breakdown in the platform's access control model where legitimate administrative privileges are insufficient to prevent unauthorized data exposure.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate validation of access permissions within the ECS storage management interface. Attackers exploiting this weakness can manipulate the system's authorization checks to traverse namespace boundaries and access data that should be restricted to specific users or groups. The vulnerability specifically affects the namespace-level access control mechanisms that should enforce data isolation between different user contexts. This improper access control flaw aligns with CWE-285 which describes improper authorization scenarios in security systems. The vulnerability's impact is amplified by the fact that it operates at the namespace level rather than individual bucket level, potentially exposing extensive data collections with a single successful exploitation attempt.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates a severe risk for organizations relying on Dell ECS for cloud storage services. A successful exploitation could result in massive data breaches affecting thousands of storage buckets and their associated metadata, potentially exposing sensitive corporate information, customer data, or intellectual property. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors do not require physical access or network proximity to the storage infrastructure. This vulnerability directly maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers legitimate credentials usage and privilege escalation. Organizations using affected Dell ECS versions face potential compliance violations under data protection regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX due to unauthorized data access.
The remediation approach requires immediate patching of all affected Dell ECS versions to address the access control validation issues. Organizations should implement additional monitoring of administrative access patterns and namespace-level activities to detect potential exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and firewall rules should be enforced to limit access to ECS management interfaces to trusted administrative networks only. Security teams should conduct comprehensive access reviews and audit trails to identify any unauthorized access that may have occurred during the vulnerability window. The patching process must be carefully coordinated to minimize service disruption while ensuring complete remediation of the improper access control vulnerability. Organizations should also consider implementing additional authentication layers such as multi-factor authentication for administrative access to the ECS platform.