CVE-2024-34652 in Samsung
Summary
by MITRE • 09/04/2024
Incorrect authorization in kperfmon prior to SMR Sep-2024 Release 1 allows local attackers to access information related to performance including app usage.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/06/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-34652 represents a critical authorization flaw within the kperfmon component of a system prior to the SMR September 2024 release. This issue stems from improper access controls that fail to adequately validate user permissions before granting access to performance monitoring data. The affected kperfmon module is responsible for collecting and reporting system performance metrics including application usage statistics, making it a potentially attractive target for malicious actors seeking to gain unauthorized insights into system operations and user behavior patterns.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the insufficient implementation of access control mechanisms within the kperfmon subsystem. Local attackers can exploit this weakness to bypass intended authorization checks and gain access to sensitive performance data that should only be available to authorized system administrators or specific user groups. This flaw operates at the application level where proper privilege separation fails to prevent unauthorized data access, creating a direct pathway for information disclosure that violates fundamental security principles of least privilege and access control enforcement.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability exposes organizations to significant risks including potential privacy violations, competitive intelligence theft, and system compromise. The performance data accessed through this flaw may contain sensitive information about application usage patterns, system resource consumption, and user behavior that could be leveraged for more sophisticated attacks. Attackers could potentially use this information to identify system weaknesses, map application dependencies, or develop targeted attacks against specific applications or user groups within the monitored environment.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization issues in software systems, and demonstrates how inadequate access control implementations can lead to unauthorized information disclosure. From an adversary perspective, this flaw maps to ATT&CK technique T1083 (File and Directory Discovery) and T1069 (Permission Groups Discovery) as attackers can use the compromised access to gather information about system permissions and file access patterns. The local nature of this attack vector means that exploitation requires physical or administrative access to the target system, but once achieved, provides persistent access to performance monitoring data that could be used for extended reconnaissance or data exfiltration operations.
Organizations should immediately implement the available security patches from the SMR September 2024 release to address this vulnerability. System administrators should also conduct comprehensive audits of access controls within performance monitoring components to identify and remediate any additional authorization gaps. Additional mitigations include implementing network segmentation to limit local access to systems running kperfmon, deploying monitoring solutions to detect unauthorized access attempts, and establishing regular security assessments of system components that handle sensitive operational data. The vulnerability highlights the importance of maintaining current security patches and implementing robust access control mechanisms across all system components, particularly those that collect and process sensitive operational information.