CVE-2021-1650 - Improper Privilege Management

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.

Evidence of privilege change:

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

               

                  

                     
}

                           

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

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.

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.