CVE-2024-6508 in OpenShift
Summary
by MITRE • 08/21/2024
An insufficient entropy vulnerability was found in the Openshift Console. In the authorization code type and implicit grant type, the OAuth2 protocol is vulnerable to a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack if the state parameter is used inefficiently. This flaw allows logging into the victim’s current application account using a third-party account without any restrictions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/22/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-6508 represents a critical security flaw within the OpenShift Console authentication framework that stems from inadequate entropy in the OAuth2 state parameter implementation. This weakness specifically affects the authorization code flow and implicit grant types, which are fundamental components of the OAuth2 protocol designed to secure web application authentication and authorization processes. The OpenShift Console serves as a web-based management interface for Kubernetes clusters, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to compromise cluster access and escalate privileges within containerized environments.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the insufficient randomness or entropy of the state parameter generated during OAuth2 authentication flows. According to CWE-338, this weakness falls under insufficient entropy vulnerabilities where cryptographic randomness is inadequate to prevent predictable outcomes. The state parameter in OAuth2 serves as a crucial anti-CSRF mechanism by generating a unique value that binds the user's authentication request to their session, preventing malicious actors from crafting forged requests that could hijack user sessions. When this parameter lacks sufficient entropy, attackers can predict or reproduce the state values, effectively bypassing the CSRF protection mechanisms that should safeguard user sessions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and directly threatens the integrity of OpenShift cluster security. An attacker exploiting this flaw can perform a cross-site request forgery attack by manipulating the OAuth2 authentication flow, enabling them to log into a victim's current application account using credentials from a third-party account. This represents a significant privilege escalation vector that could allow unauthorized access to sensitive cluster resources, potentially leading to data breaches, service disruption, or lateral movement within the containerized infrastructure. The vulnerability particularly affects environments where OpenShift Console is used for administrative access, as successful exploitation could provide attackers with full cluster management capabilities.
This vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including T1566 for credential access through phishing and T1548 for privilege escalation, as the flaw enables attackers to gain unauthorized access to legitimate user sessions. The attack surface is particularly concerning in multi-tenant environments where multiple users interact with the same OpenShift Console instance, as a single compromised session could potentially affect multiple users or applications. Organizations relying on OpenShift for container orchestration and deployment face heightened risk of unauthorized access to their cloud-native applications and infrastructure, especially when the console is exposed to untrusted networks or users.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing robust entropy generation for the OAuth2 state parameter, ensuring that the generated values meet cryptographic strength requirements as specified in NIST SP 800-90A. System administrators should update their OpenShift Console installations to versions that address this vulnerability and implement additional security controls such as strict CORS policies, enhanced session management, and monitoring for suspicious authentication patterns. The fix should ensure that the state parameter utilizes cryptographically secure random number generators and that the generated values are sufficiently long to prevent prediction attacks, typically requiring at least 128 bits of entropy to provide adequate protection against brute force and prediction attempts.