A vulnerability in an API endpoint of Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) and Cisco Cloud Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (Cloud APIC) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with Administrator read-only credentials to elevate privileges on an affected system. This vulnerability is due to an insufficient role-based access control (RBAC). An attacker with Administrator read-only credentials could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specific API request using an app with admin write credentials. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to Administrator with write privileges on the affected device.
The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application_policy_infrastructure_controller | Cisco | * | 3.2(10f) (excluding) |
| Application_policy_infrastructure_controller | Cisco | 4.0 (including) | 4.2(7l) (excluding) |
| Application_policy_infrastructure_controller | Cisco | 5.0 (including) | 5.2(2f) (excluding) |
| Cloud_application_policy_infrastructure_controller | Cisco | * | 3.2(10f) (excluding) |
| Cloud_application_policy_infrastructure_controller | Cisco | 4.0 (including) | 4.2(7l) (excluding) |
| Cloud_application_policy_infrastructure_controller | Cisco | 5.0 (including) | 5.2(2f) (excluding) |
New weaknesses can be exposed because running with extra privileges, such as root or Administrator, can disable the normal security checks being performed by the operating system or surrounding environment. Other pre-existing weaknesses can turn into security vulnerabilities if they occur while operating at raised privileges. Privilege management functions can behave in some less-than-obvious ways, and they have different quirks on different platforms. These inconsistencies are particularly pronounced if you are transitioning from one non-root user to another. Signal handlers and spawned processes run at the privilege of the owning process, so if a process is running as root when a signal fires or a sub-process is executed, the signal handler or sub-process will operate with root privileges.