CVE-2025-29757 in Cloud Service
Summary
by MITRE • 07/19/2025
An incorrect authorisation check in the the 'plant transfer' function of the Growatt cloud service allowed a malicous attacker with a valid account to transfer any plant into his/her account.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/19/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-29757 represents a critical authorization flaw within the Growatt cloud service platform that fundamentally undermines the security model governing plant ownership and transfer operations. This issue specifically targets the 'plant transfer' functionality, which is designed to facilitate legitimate administrative tasks such as moving solar energy installations between user accounts. The flaw manifests as an insufficient validation mechanism that fails to properly verify whether the requesting user has legitimate authorization to perform the transfer operation. Attackers with valid accounts can exploit this weakness to manipulate the system and claim ownership of any solar plant registered within the service, regardless of their actual relationship to the installation. This represents a fundamental breakdown in the principle of least privilege and proper access control enforcement that should be maintained at all levels of the platform's architecture.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and authorization checks within the plant transfer workflow. When a user attempts to transfer a plant, the system should verify not only that the user possesses a valid account but also that they have legitimate ownership or administrative rights over the target installation. The absence of proper authorization verification means that the system accepts transfer requests without confirming whether the requesting user is authorized to perform such operations on the specific plant in question. This flaw likely exists in the backend processing logic where the system fails to cross-reference the user's permissions against the plant's ownership records, allowing for arbitrary plant transfers. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which specifically addresses insufficient authorization checks, and represents a clear violation of the authorization principle that requires systems to verify proper access rights before executing privileged operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple unauthorized access, creating significant risks for both individual users and the broader platform ecosystem. An attacker who successfully exploits this flaw can potentially gain control over any solar installation within the system, leading to unauthorized revenue generation, manipulation of energy production data, and potential compromise of the entire installation management infrastructure. The financial implications are substantial as solar plant owners may lose control of their assets while attackers could potentially monetize the installations through fraudulent activities. Additionally, the platform's integrity is compromised as the system can no longer reliably maintain accurate ownership records, creating audit trail issues and potential regulatory compliance problems. From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability provides a powerful primitive for further exploitation, potentially enabling lateral movement within the platform's ecosystem or serving as a stepping stone for more sophisticated attacks.
The security implications of this flaw extend to the broader ATT&CK framework where it maps to privilege escalation techniques and unauthorized access patterns. The vulnerability enables an attacker to move from a standard user account to full administrative control over any plant within the system, representing a significant elevation of privileges without proper authorization. This type of flaw commonly appears in systems where authorization checks are implemented inconsistently or where the system fails to maintain proper separation of duties between different user roles. Organizations should implement comprehensive access control reviews and validate that all administrative functions include proper authorization verification. The mitigation strategy should involve implementing robust authorization checks that verify user permissions against specific resources before allowing any transfer operations, including maintaining detailed audit logs of all transfer activities for monitoring and forensic analysis purposes. Regular security testing and code reviews focused on authorization logic are essential to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in the future.