CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-7967

Improper Access Control

Published: Dec 23, 2016 | Modified: Dec 27, 2016
CVSS 3.x
8.1
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
CVSS 2.x
5.8 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
RedHat/V2
6.8 MODERATE
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V3
6.3 MODERATE
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

KMail since version 5.3.0 used a QWebEngine based viewer that had JavaScript enabled. Since the generated html is executed in the local file security context by default access to remote and local URLs was enabled.

Weakness

The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Kmail Kde * 5.3.0 (including)
Kdepim Ubuntu yakkety *
Kf5-messagelib Ubuntu devel *
Kf5-messagelib Ubuntu upstream *
Kf5-messagelib Ubuntu yakkety *

Extended Description

Access control involves the use of several protection mechanisms such as:

When any mechanism is not applied or otherwise fails, attackers can compromise the security of the product by gaining privileges, reading sensitive information, executing commands, evading detection, etc. There are two distinct behaviors that can introduce access control weaknesses:

Potential Mitigations

  • Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
  • Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

References