CVE-2025-24506 in Symantec Privileged Access Management
Summary
by MITRE • 01/30/2025
A specific authentication strategy allows to learn ids of PAM users associated with certain authentication types.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/05/2025
This vulnerability resides within the authentication mechanisms of a system that employs Pluggable Authentication Modules PAM framework. The flaw manifests as an information disclosure weakness that enables unauthorized parties to discover user identifiers associated with specific authentication types through a particular authentication strategy implementation. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output sanitization within the authentication processing pipeline, where user identifiers are exposed during the authentication flow when certain authentication types are utilized. This represents a classic case of improper information exposure where sensitive data about user accounts becomes accessible to attackers who should not have such visibility into the authentication system's internal workings.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to perform reconnaissance activities by observing the authentication responses and identifying patterns in user identification that correlate with specific authentication methods. The flaw operates at the authentication strategy level where the system fails to properly abstract or mask user identifiers when processing certain authentication types, creating a side-channel information leak. This type of vulnerability typically falls under CWE-200 Information Exposure and may also map to CWE-352 Cross-Site Request Forgery or CWE-225 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command depending on the specific implementation details and attack vectors available. The vulnerability demonstrates a lack of proper access control enforcement during the authentication process where user identification information should remain protected from unauthorized disclosure.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple reconnaissance as it provides attackers with valuable information for subsequent attacks within the authentication system. Once user identifiers are discovered, attackers can leverage this information for targeted brute force attacks, credential stuffing operations, or social engineering campaigns that exploit the knowledge of which users are associated with specific authentication mechanisms. The vulnerability affects the confidentiality aspect of the authentication system by enabling unauthorized information disclosure that violates the principle of least privilege and proper access control enforcement. Attackers could potentially use this information to map out user authentication patterns, identify high-value targets, or craft more sophisticated attacks against specific user accounts.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper input validation and output sanitization within the authentication processing modules to ensure that user identifiers are not exposed during authentication flows. The authentication strategy implementation must enforce proper abstraction of user information and ensure that only necessary authentication data is processed and returned. Organizations should implement proper access controls and privilege separation within their PAM configurations to prevent unauthorized access to authentication information. The system should be configured to use secure authentication protocols that do not expose user identifiers in authentication responses. Additionally, regular security assessments and code reviews should be conducted to identify similar information disclosure vulnerabilities in authentication systems and ensure compliance with security standards such as those defined in the NIST SP 800-53 security controls for authentication and access control. The implementation should also consider adopting techniques from the ATT&CK framework's credential access tactics to prevent adversaries from harvesting user credentials through information disclosure vulnerabilities.