CVE-2019-11279
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2019-11279 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Cloud Foundry UAA (User Account and Authentication) service. A remote authenticated attacker can request unauthorized scopes by submitting an array of scopes, allowing them to gain administrative privileges and take control of UAA and its managed resources. This affects all CF UAA deployments prior to version 74.1.0.
💻 Affected Systems
- Cloud Foundry UAA (User Account and Authentication)
📦 What is this software?
Uaa Release by Cloudfoundry
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete compromise of UAA service leading to full administrative control over Cloud Foundry platform, including ability to create/delete users, modify permissions, and access all managed resources.
Likely Case
Privilege escalation allowing attackers to gain administrative access to UAA and potentially other Cloud Foundry components, leading to data exposure and unauthorized system modifications.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper network segmentation and monitoring, though privilege escalation would still be possible for authenticated users.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but is straightforward once authentication is obtained. The vulnerability is in the scope request handling mechanism.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 74.1.0 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://www.cloudfoundry.org/blog/cve-2019-11279
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Upgrade UAA to version 74.1.0 or later. 2. Update UAA deployment configuration. 3. Restart UAA service. 4. Verify the upgrade completed successfully.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Network Access Restriction
allRestrict network access to UAA endpoints to only trusted sources and implement strict authentication requirements.
Enhanced Monitoring
allImplement detailed logging and monitoring of scope requests and privilege changes in UAA.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation to isolate UAA from untrusted networks
- Enforce multi-factor authentication and monitor for unusual privilege escalation attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check UAA version: if version is below 74.1.0, the system is vulnerable. Review UAA logs for unusual scope requests.Check Version:
Check UAA deployment manifest or run 'uaa version' command if available in deploymentVerify Fix Applied:
Verify UAA version is 74.1.0 or higher. Test that scope validation properly rejects unauthorized scope arrays.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple scope requests in single authentication attempts
- Unusual privilege escalation patterns
- Failed scope validation attempts
Network Indicators:
- Unusual authentication traffic patterns to UAA endpoints
- Multiple scope parameter submissions in requests
SIEM Query:
source="uaa" AND (scope_count>1 OR scope_array_detected=true)