TP-LINK EAP Controller 2.5.3 RMI Service missing authentication

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in TP-LINK EAP Controller 2.5.3. This impacts an unknown function of the component RMI Service. The manipulation leads to missing authentication. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2018-5393. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in TP-LINK EAP Controller 2.5.3. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects some unknown functionality of the component RMI Service. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a missing authentication vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-306. The product does not perform any authentication for functionality that requires a provable user identity or consumes a significant amount of resources. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The TP-LINK EAP Controller is TP-LINK's software for remotely controlling wireless access point devices. It utilizes a Java remote method invocation (RMI) service for remote control. The RMI interface does not require any authentication before use, so it lacks user authentication for RMI service commands in EAP controller versions 2.5.3 and earlier. Remote attackers can implement deserialization attacks through the RMI protocol. Successful attacks may allow a remote attacker to remotely control the target server and execute Java functions or bytecode.

The bug was discovered 09/26/2018. The weakness was published 09/28/2018 as confirmed advisory (CERT.org). It is possible to read the advisory at kb.cert.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2018-5393 since 01/11/2018. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 2 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at SecurityFocus (BID 105402†). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• TP-LINK

Name

• EAP Controller

Version

• 2.5.3

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.tp-link.com/

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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