CVE-2026-102110 in Kiteworks
Summary
by MITRE • 10/01/2026
An endpoint used during initial appliance setup did not require authentication and did not correctly enforce its intended state precondition, so during the initial activation window an unauthenticated network attacker could repeatedly re-trigger the privileged activation process. This could disrupt setup and leave the appliance in an incompletely configured state. The issue is only reachable while an appliance is being activated for the first time and not yet fully configured.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/01/2026
The vulnerability described involves a critical flaw in the initial configuration workflow of network appliances, specifically affecting the endpoint responsible for handling activation requests during the setup phase. This security deficiency stems from two primary technical failures: the absence of authentication mechanisms on the activation endpoint and the lack of proper state precondition enforcement within the application logic. In secure system design, administrative or privileged operations such as device activation must be protected by robust access controls to prevent unauthorized entities from influencing critical configuration states. The failure to implement these controls creates a significant attack surface that is exploitable only during a narrow window of time when the appliance is in its initial setup mode and has not yet been fully configured with persistent security policies or user credentials.
From a technical perspective, the core issue lies in the application's inability to maintain atomicity and consistency regarding its activation state. When an unauthenticated attacker sends repeated requests to trigger the privileged activation process, the system fails to recognize that it is already processing or has completed this action. This race condition allows for rapid re-triggering of the activation sequence, which can interrupt ongoing initialization tasks. The operational impact of this behavior is severe, as it can disrupt the setup procedure and leave the appliance in an incompletely configured state. An incomplete configuration may result in default credentials remaining active, firewall rules not being applied correctly, or management interfaces left exposed to untrusted networks, thereby compromising the security posture of the device from its very inception.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which describes Improper Access Control, as well as CWE-367, Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) race conditions, due to the failure to enforce state preconditions correctly under concurrent or repeated requests. Furthermore, in the context of the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this flaw facilitates Initial Access and potentially Persistence if an attacker can manipulate the configuration to maintain access after a reboot or reconfiguration. The exploitability is limited by the requirement that the target must be in its initial activation window, meaning it does not affect fully deployed systems with established administrative accounts. However, for organizations deploying new hardware, this represents a high-risk vector during the provisioning phase where security teams may have less visibility into the device's internal state.
Mitigation strategies should focus on hardening the initialization process to ensure that privileged endpoints are inaccessible without proper authentication credentials, even if those credentials are set by an administrator later in the workflow. Implementing rate limiting or request throttling can also help mitigate the impact of repeated activation attempts by preventing rapid re-triggering before the state transition is fully committed and persisted. Additionally, developers should enforce strict state machine logic that validates the current system status before allowing any privileged operation to proceed, ensuring that once an activation process begins, it cannot be interrupted or restarted by external requests until completion. For administrators, it is crucial to monitor network traffic during initial setup and ensure that management interfaces are not exposed to untrusted networks until the device has been fully secured and configured with appropriate access controls.