CVE-2024-5865 in Centrify PAS
Summary
by MITRE • 07/02/2024
Vulnerability in Delinea Centrify PAS v. 21.3 and possibly others. The application is prone to the path traversal vulnerability allowing arbitrary files reading outside the web publish directory. Versions 23.1-HF7 and on have the patch.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/30/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-5865 affects Delinea Centrify Privileged Access Service (PAS) version 21.3 and potentially other versions within the product line. This represents a critical path traversal flaw that enables attackers to access files outside the intended web publish directory through improper input validation mechanisms. The vulnerability stems from inadequate sanitization of user-supplied input that is processed by the application's file handling components, allowing malicious actors to manipulate file paths and gain unauthorized access to sensitive system resources.
This security weakness manifests as a directory traversal attack vector where an attacker can exploit the application's failure to properly validate and sanitize file path parameters. The vulnerability specifically impacts the web application's ability to restrict file access to designated directories, creating an opportunity for arbitrary file reading. According to CWE-22, this vulnerability maps directly to the well-known weakness of improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory, commonly referred to as path traversal or directory traversal attacks. The flaw allows attackers to navigate through the file system hierarchy and potentially access configuration files, database credentials, application source code, or other sensitive data that should remain protected within the application's designated boundaries.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial as it provides attackers with the capability to extract sensitive information from the affected system without requiring authentication or elevated privileges. Attackers can leverage this weakness to gather system information, access confidential data, or potentially escalate their privileges within the environment. The vulnerability's exploitation can lead to data breaches, system compromise, and unauthorized access to privileged information that could be used for further attacks within the network infrastructure. Organizations utilizing affected versions of Centrify PAS may face significant security risks including exposure of sensitive credentials, system configurations, and potentially business-critical data stored on the application servers.
Mitigation strategies should prioritize immediate implementation of the vendor-provided patch released in version 23.1-HF7 and subsequent releases. Organizations should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of the affected software within their environment and ensure timely patch deployment across all systems. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit exposure of the affected application to unauthorized users. Additionally, input validation mechanisms should be strengthened to prevent path traversal attacks, and regular security audits should be conducted to identify potential similar vulnerabilities in other applications. The remediation process should include monitoring for exploitation attempts and implementing appropriate logging and alerting mechanisms to detect suspicious file access patterns. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1083 (File and Directory Discovery) and T1566 (Phishing) as attackers may use the extracted information for further reconnaissance or social engineering campaigns.