Vulnerabilities > CVE-2017-8438 - Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in Elastic X-Pack

047910
CVSS 6.5 - MEDIUM
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
SINGLE
Confidentiality impact
PARTIAL
Integrity impact
PARTIAL
Availability impact
PARTIAL
network
low complexity
elastic
CWE-269
nessus
NVD
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2019-10-09

Summary

Elastic X-Pack Security versions 5.0.0 to 5.4.0 contain a privilege escalation bug in the run_as functionality. This bug prevents transitioning into the specified user specified in a run_as request. If a role has been created using a template that contains the _user properties, the behavior of run_as will be incorrect. Additionally if the run_as user specified does not exist, the transition will not happen.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Elastic
13

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Restful Privilege Elevation
    Rest uses standard HTTP (Get, Put, Delete) style permissions methods, but these are not necessarily correlated generally with back end programs. Strict interpretation of HTTP get methods means that these HTTP Get services should not be used to delete information on the server, but there is no access control mechanism to back up this logic. This means that unless the services are properly ACL'd and the application's service implementation are following these guidelines then an HTTP request can easily execute a delete or update on the server side. The attacker identifies a HTTP Get URL such as http://victimsite/updateOrder, which calls out to a program to update orders on a database or other resource. The URL is not idempotent so the request can be submitted multiple times by the attacker, additionally, the attacker may be able to exploit the URL published as a Get method that actually performs updates (instead of merely retrieving data). This may result in malicious or inadvertent altering of data on the server.

Nessus

NASL familyCGI abuses
NASL idELASTICSEARCH_ESA_2017_06.NASL
descriptionX-Pack Security versions 5.0.0 to 5.4.0 contain a privilege escalation bug in the run_as functionality. This bug prevents transitioning into the specified user specified in a run_as request. If a role has been created using a template that contains the _user properties, the behavior of run_as will be incorrect. Additionally if the run_as user specified does not exist, the transition will not happen.
last seen2020-06-01
modified2020-06-02
plugin id112038
published2018-08-22
reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/112038
titleElasticsearch ESA-2017-06
code
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(112038);
  script_version("1.2");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/11/04");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2017-8438");

  script_name(english:"Elasticsearch ESA-2017-06");
  script_summary(english:"Checks the version of Elasticsearch.");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The remote web server hosts a Java application that is affected by 
multiple vulnerabilities.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"X-Pack Security versions 5.0.0 to 5.4.0 contain a privilege escalation
bug in the run_as functionality. This bug prevents transitioning into
the specified user specified in a run_as request. If a role has been
created using a template that contains the _user properties, the
behavior of run_as will be incorrect. Additionally if the run_as user
specified does not exist, the transition will not happen.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://www.elastic.co/community/security");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"User currently using run_as functionality should upgrade to X-Pack
Security 5.4.1");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2017-8438");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2017/06/01");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2017/06/01");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2018/08/22");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"remote");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/a:elastic:x-pack");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"CGI abuses");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");

  script_dependencies("elasticsearch_detect.nbin");
  script_require_keys("installed_sw/Elasticsearch");
  script_require_ports("Services/www", 9200);

  exit(0);
}

include("audit.inc");
include("http.inc");
include("vcf.inc");

app = "Elasticsearch";

get_install_count(app_name:app, exit_if_zero:TRUE);

port = get_http_port(default:9200);

app_info = vcf::get_app_info(app:app, port:port, webapp:TRUE);

if (empty_or_null(app_info["Plugins/X-Pack/security"]))
  audit(AUDIT_WEB_APP_EXT_NOT_INST, app, app_info['path'], "X-Pack Security plugin");

constraints = [
  { "min_version" : "5.0.0", "fixed_version" : "5.4.1" }
];

vcf::check_version_and_report(app_info:app_info, constraints:constraints, severity:SECURITY_WARNING);

References