CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2024-20491

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Published: Oct 02, 2024 | Modified: Oct 08, 2024
CVSS 3.x
8.6
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS 2.x
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

A vulnerability in a logging function of Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights could allow an attacker with access to a tech support file to view sensitive information.

This vulnerability exists because remote controller credentials are recorded in an internal log that is stored in the tech support file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by accessing a tech support file that is generated from an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view remote controller admin credentials in clear text. Note: Best practice is to store debug logs and tech support files safely and to share them only with trusted parties because they may contain sensitive information.

Weakness

The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Nexus_dashboard_fabric_controller Cisco 12.1.0 (including) 12.2.2.241 (excluding)
Nexus_dashboard_insights Cisco * 6.4.0 (excluding)
Nexus_dashboard_insights Cisco 6.5.0 (including) 6.5.1.32 (excluding)
Nexus_dashboard_orchestrator Cisco * 4.2(3o) (excluding)
Nexus_dashboard_orchestrator Cisco 4.4.0 (including) 4.4.1.1012 (excluding)

Extended Description

There are many different kinds of mistakes that introduce information exposures. The severity of the error can range widely, depending on the context in which the product operates, the type of sensitive information that is revealed, and the benefits it may provide to an attacker. Some kinds of sensitive information include:

Information might be sensitive to different parties, each of which may have their own expectations for whether the information should be protected. These parties include:

Information exposures can occur in different ways:

It is common practice to describe any loss of confidentiality as an “information exposure,” but this can lead to overuse of CWE-200 in CWE mapping. From the CWE perspective, loss of confidentiality is a technical impact that can arise from dozens of different weaknesses, such as insecure file permissions or out-of-bounds read. CWE-200 and its lower-level descendants are intended to cover the mistakes that occur in behaviors that explicitly manage, store, transfer, or cleanse sensitive information.

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