Vulnerabilities > CVE-2023-23690 - Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability in Dell Cloud Mobility for Dell EMC Storage 1.3.0/1.3.1

047910
CVSS 7.0 - HIGH
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
HIGH
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
HIGH
Integrity impact
LOW
Availability impact
LOW
network
high complexity
dell
CWE-295

Summary

Cloud Mobility for Dell EMC Storage, versions 1.3.0.X and below contains an Improper Check for Certificate Revocation vulnerability. A threat actor does not need any specific privileges to potentially exploit this vulnerability. An attacker could perform a man-in-the-middle attack and eavesdrop on encrypted communications from Cloud Mobility to Cloud Storage devices. Exploitation could lead to the compromise of secret and sensitive information, cloud storage connection downtime, and the integrity of the connection to the Cloud devices.

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Creating a Rogue Certificate Authority Certificate
    An attacker exploits a weakness in the MD5 hash algorithm (weak collision resistance) to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) that contains collision blocks in the "to be signed" part. The attacker specially crafts two different, but valid X.509 certificates that when hashed with the MD5 algorithm would yield the same value. The attacker then sends the CSR for one of the certificates to the Certification Authority which uses the MD5 hashing algorithm. That request is completely valid and the Certificate Authority issues an X.509 certificate to the attacker which is signed with its private key. An attacker then takes that signed blob and inserts it into another X.509 certificate that the attacker generated. Due to the MD5 collision, both certificates, though different, hash to the same value and so the signed blob works just as well in the second certificate. The net effect is that the attackers' second X.509 certificate, which the Certification Authority has never seen, is now signed and validated by that Certification Authority. To make the attack more interesting, the second certificate could be not just a regular certificate, but rather itself a signing certificate. Thus the attacker is able to start their own Certification Authority that is anchored in its root of trust in the legitimate Certification Authority that has signed the attackers' first X.509 certificate. If the original Certificate Authority was accepted by default by browsers, so will now the Certificate Authority set up by the attacker and of course any certificates that it signs. So the attacker is now able to generate any SSL certificates to impersonate any web server, and the user's browser will not issue any warning to the victim. This can be used to compromise HTTPS communications and other types of systems where PKI and X.509 certificates may be used (e.g., VPN, IPSec) .