CVE-2018-15321 - Improper Privilege Management

Severity

55%

Complexity

80%

Confidentiality

81%

When BIG-IP 14.0.0-14.0.0.2, 13.0.0-13.1.0.5, 12.1.0-12.1.3.5, 11.6.0-11.6.3.2, or 11.2.1-11.5.6, BIG-IQ Centralized Management 5.0.0-5.4.0 or 4.6.0, BIG-IQ Cloud and Orchestration 1.0.0, iWorkflow 2.1.0-2.3.0, or Enterprise Manager 3.1.1 is licensed for Appliance Mode, Admin and Resource administrator roles can by-pass BIG-IP Appliance Mode restrictions to overwrite critical system files. Attackers of high privilege level are able to overwrite critical system files which bypasses security controls in place to limit TMSH commands. This is possible with an administrator or resource administrator roles when granted TMSH. Resource administrator roles must have TMSH access in order to perform this attack.

When BIG-IP 14.0.0-14.0.0.2, 13.0.0-13.1.0.5, 12.1.0-12.1.3.5, 11.6.0-11.6.3.2, or 11.2.1-11.5.6, BIG-IQ Centralized Management 5.0.0-5.4.0 or 4.6.0, BIG-IQ Cloud and Orchestration 1.0.0, iWorkflow 2.1.0-2.3.0, or Enterprise Manager 3.1.1 is licensed for Appliance Mode, Admin and Resource administrator roles can by-pass BIG-IP Appliance Mode restrictions to overwrite critical system files. Attackers of high privilege level are able to overwrite critical system files which bypasses security controls in place to limit TMSH commands. This is possible with an administrator or resource administrator roles when granted TMSH. Resource administrator roles must have TMSH access in order to perform this attack.

CVSS 3.0 Base Score 4.9. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N).

CVSS 2.0 Base Score 5.5. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:P).

Demo Examples

Improper Privilege Management

CWE-269

This code temporarily raises the program's privileges to allow creation of a new user folder.


               
return True
return False#avoid CWE-22 and CWE-78
lowerPrivileges()
return False

While the program only raises its privilege level to create the folder and immediately lowers it again, if the call to os.mkdir() throws an exception, the call to lowerPrivileges() will not occur. As a result, the program is indefinitely operating in a raised privilege state, possibly allowing further exploitation to occur.

Improper Privilege Management

CWE-269

Evidence of privilege change:


               
seteuid(getuid());/* do some stuff */

               
}
// privileged code goes here, for example:// nothing to return

Improper Privilege Management

CWE-269

This code intends to allow only Administrators to print debug information about a system.


               
}
ADMIN,USER,GUEST
}
}
break;
break;
System.out.println("You must be logged in to perform this command");

While the intention was to only allow Administrators to print the debug information, the code as written only excludes those the with the role of "GUEST". Someone with the role of "ADMIN" or "USER" will be allowed access, which goes against the original intent. An attacker may be able to use this debug information to craft an attack on the system.

Improper Privilege Management

CWE-269

This code allows someone with the role of "ADMIN" or "OPERATOR" to reset a user's password. The role of "OPERATOR" is intended to have less privileges than an "ADMIN", but still be able to help users with small issues such as forgotten passwords.


               
}
ADMIN,OPERATOR,USER,GUEST
}
}
}
break;
break;
break;
System.out.println("You must be logged in to perform this command");

This code does not check the role of the user whose password is being reset. It is possible for an Operator to gain Admin privileges by resetting the password of an Admin account and taking control of that account.

Overview

Type

F5

First reported 6 years ago

2018-10-31 14:29:00

Last updated 5 years ago

2019-10-03 00:03:00

Affected Software

F5 Networks Big-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

F5 Big-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)

F5 Big-IP Application Acceleration Manager (AAM)

F5 Big-IP Analytics

F5 Big-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

F5 Big-IP Domain Name System (DNS)

F5 Big-IP Edge Gateway

F5 Big-IP Fraud Protection Service (FPS)

F5 Big-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM)

F5 Big-IP Link Controller

F5 Big-IP Policy Enforcement Manager (PEM)

F5 Big-IP WebAccelerator

F5 Networks Enterprise Manager 3.1.1

3.1.1

F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 4.6.0

4.6.0

F5 BIG-IQ Cloud and Orchestration 1.0.0

1.0.0

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