CVE-2024-6435 in Pavilion8
Summary
by MITRE • 07/16/2024
A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the affected products which could allow a malicious user with basic privileges to access functions which should only be available to users with administrative level privileges. If exploited, an attacker could read sensitive data, and create users. For example, a malicious user with basic privileges could perform critical functions such as creating a user with elevated privileges and reading sensitive information in the “views” section.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/01/2025
This privilege escalation vulnerability represents a critical security flaw that undermines the fundamental access control mechanisms within the affected system. The vulnerability allows attackers with minimal user privileges to bypass authentication and authorization checks that should prevent them from accessing administrative functions. Such a weakness directly violates the principle of least privilege and demonstrates a failure in the system's security architecture. The affected products likely implement role-based access control or similar privilege management systems that have been compromised, enabling unauthorized users to escalate their privileges without proper authentication. This type of vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it provides attackers with the foundation for further exploitation and persistent access to sensitive system resources. The security implications extend beyond simple unauthorized access as they enable attackers to manipulate the system's user management capabilities and access restricted data repositories.
The technical flaw manifests as a failure in the authorization validation process where the system does not properly verify whether a user possesses sufficient privileges before executing administrative operations. This could occur due to improper input validation, missing access control checks, or flawed logic in the privilege verification routines. The vulnerability likely exists in the application's core authentication and authorization modules, potentially in web application frameworks, database access controls, or system-level privilege management components. Attackers can exploit this by crafting specific requests or operations that bypass normal access controls, allowing them to execute functions that should require administrative credentials or elevated permissions. The flaw may be present in the application's API endpoints, web interface controls, or underlying database queries that handle user privilege management. According to CWE standards, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization issues, and could also relate to CWE-798, indicating potential hard-coded credentials or configuration issues that compound the problem.
The operational impact of this privilege escalation vulnerability is severe and multifaceted, potentially enabling attackers to achieve persistent access and control over critical system functions. Once exploited, attackers can create new user accounts with elevated privileges, effectively establishing backdoors within the system that persist beyond the initial attack. They can also access sensitive data stored in restricted sections such as the "views" functionality mentioned in the description, which typically contains confidential information or system configurations. This capability allows for data exfiltration, system manipulation, and potential lateral movement within the network. The vulnerability enables attackers to perform operations that should be restricted to administrators, including modifying user permissions, accessing audit logs, and potentially compromising other system components. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to privilege escalation techniques such as T1068, which involves exploiting vulnerabilities to gain elevated privileges, and T1566, which covers social engineering attacks that can be used to gain initial access before exploiting this privilege escalation flaw.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing comprehensive access control measures and strengthening the system's authentication mechanisms. Organizations should immediately apply vendor patches and updates when available to address the specific vulnerability in question. The implementation of proper input validation and comprehensive access control checks should be enforced throughout the application, ensuring that every operation requiring elevated privileges undergoes strict verification. Regular security audits and code reviews should be conducted to identify and remediate similar authorization flaws. Additional protective measures include implementing multi-factor authentication for administrative functions, establishing proper logging and monitoring of privilege escalation attempts, and conducting regular penetration testing to identify potential access control weaknesses. Network segmentation and least privilege principles should be enforced to limit the potential impact of any successful exploitation. Security teams should also implement automated vulnerability scanning tools to detect similar authorization flaws across the system infrastructure and ensure that all user sessions are properly authenticated before granting access to administrative functions.