CVE-2024-23477 in Access Rights Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 02/15/2024
The SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) was found to be susceptible to a Directory Traversal Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. If exploited, this vulnerability allows an unauthenticated user to achieve a Remote Code Execution.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/08/2024
The SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-23477 represents a critical security flaw that exposes organizations to significant remote exploitation risks. This vulnerability specifically affects the ARM component of SolarWinds' security infrastructure, which is designed to manage and control access rights within enterprise environments. The flaw manifests as a directory traversal vulnerability that can be exploited by unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems, potentially compromising the entire security infrastructure of organizations relying on this platform.
This directory traversal vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and improper path handling within the ARM application's file processing mechanisms. The technical implementation fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input that is used to construct file paths or access system resources. When an attacker crafts malicious input that includes directory traversal sequences such as ../ or ..\, the application processes these sequences without sufficient validation, allowing access to files and directories outside of the intended application scope. This weakness directly maps to CWE-22, which categorizes directory traversal vulnerabilities as a fundamental flaw in input validation and path handling. The vulnerability exists in the application's web interface where it processes user requests for file operations, creating an attack surface that can be exploited remotely without requiring authentication credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple unauthorized access, as successful exploitation can lead to complete system compromise and persistent backdoor access. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected application, potentially gaining access to sensitive authentication credentials, network configuration data, and other critical system information. The implications are particularly severe for organizations using SolarWinds ARM, as this platform typically serves as a central access management system where attackers could escalate privileges to gain administrative control over the entire security infrastructure. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and script interpreter, as exploitation would likely involve executing malicious commands through the compromised application interface.
Organizations must implement immediate mitigations to protect against exploitation of this vulnerability, including applying the vendor-provided security patches as soon as they become available. Network segmentation and firewall rules should be implemented to restrict access to the affected ARM components, particularly limiting exposure to external networks. Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough security assessments to identify any potential compromise indicators and implement monitoring solutions that can detect anomalous file access patterns or unauthorized code execution attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper input validation and secure coding practices, as it represents a failure to properly sanitize user input before processing it within the application's file handling subsystem. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls to provide an additional layer of protection against directory traversal attacks and other common web application vulnerabilities.