CVE-2023-39249

Dell SupportAssist for Business PCs version 3.4.0 contains a local Authentication Bypass vulnerability that allows locally authenticated non-admin users to gain temporary privilege within the SupportAssist User Interface on their respective PC. The Run as Admin temporary privilege feature enables IT/System Administrators to perform driver scans and Dell-recommended driver installations without requiring them to log out of the local non-admin user session. However, the granted privilege is limited solely to the SupportAssist User Interface and automatically expires after 15 minutes.

Weakness

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to access resources or functionality as specified by their permissions. This may cause it to follow unexpected code paths that may leave the product in an invalid state.

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

• https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000216574/security-update-for-dell-supportassist-for-business-pcs-vulnerability