CVE-2018-17954 : Exploit Details and Defense Strategies

CVE-2018-17954, assigned by Micro Focus, involves a vulnerability in the privilege management of Crowbar in various versions of SUSE OpenStack Cloud.

Understanding CVE-2018-17954

An issue has been discovered in the privilege management of Crowbar in SUSE OpenStack Cloud, allowing root users on any Crowbar managed node to gain root privileges on any other node.

What is CVE-2018-17954?

The vulnerability in Crowbar's privilege management allows unauthorized root users to escalate their privileges on different nodes within the SUSE OpenStack Cloud environment.

The Impact of CVE-2018-17954

The vulnerability poses a critical threat with a CVSS base score of 9.3, indicating a high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected systems.

Technical Details of CVE-2018-17954

The technical details shed light on the vulnerability's description, affected systems, and exploitation mechanism.

Vulnerability Description

The issue affects various versions of SUSE OpenStack Cloud, including Crowbar 7, 8, and 9, allowing unauthorized root users to elevate their privileges across nodes.

Affected Systems and Versions

SUSE OpenStack Cloud 7: Crowbar-core versions prior to 4.0+git.1578392992.fabfd186c-9.63.1
SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8: Ardana-cinder versions prior to 8.0+git.1579279939.ee7da88-3.39.3
SUSE OpenStack Cloud 9: Ardana-ansible versions prior to 9.0+git.1581611758.f694f7d-3.16.1
SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8: Crowbar-core versions prior to 5.0+git.1582968668.1a55c77c5-3.35.4
SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9: Crowbar-core versions prior to 6.0+git.1582892022.cbd70e833-3.19.3

Exploitation Mechanism

The vulnerability allows root users on one Crowbar managed node to gain unauthorized root privileges on other nodes within the SUSE OpenStack Cloud environment.

Mitigation and Prevention

To address CVE-2018-17954, immediate steps and long-term security practices are crucial.

Immediate Steps to Take

Apply patches provided by SUSE for the affected versions of Crowbar in the OpenStack Cloud environment.
Monitor and restrict root access to prevent unauthorized privilege escalation.

Long-Term Security Practices

Implement least privilege access controls to limit root user capabilities.
Regularly update and patch systems to address known vulnerabilities.

Patching and Updates

Ensure timely installation of security patches and updates provided by SUSE to mitigate the vulnerability.