CVE-2024-35138
📋 TL;DR
IBM Security Verify Access Appliance and Container versions 10.0.0 through 10.0.8 contain a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability. This allows attackers to trick authenticated users into performing unauthorized actions on the system. Organizations using these affected IBM security products are at risk.
💻 Affected Systems
- IBM Security Verify Access Appliance
- IBM Security Verify Access Container
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An attacker could perform administrative actions, modify security configurations, create new privileged accounts, or exfiltrate sensitive data by tricking an authenticated administrator into clicking a malicious link.
Likely Case
Attackers could modify user permissions, change authentication settings, or perform other unauthorized actions within the security system's web interface.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections and user awareness training, the risk is significantly reduced as attackers would need to bypass additional security controls.
🎯 Exploit Status
CSRF attacks typically require social engineering to trick authenticated users into interacting with malicious content.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 10.0.8.1 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7182386
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download the latest fix pack from IBM Fix Central. 2. Apply the fix pack following IBM's installation instructions. 3. Restart the appliance or container services. 4. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement CSRF Tokens
allAdd anti-CSRF tokens to web forms and validate them server-side
SameSite Cookie Attribute
allSet SameSite=Strict or SameSite=Lax attributes on session cookies
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block CSRF attempts
- Educate users about the risks of clicking unknown links while authenticated to the system
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check the current version of IBM Security Verify Access via the administrative interface or command lineCheck Version:
ssh admin@<appliance-ip> 'show version' or check via web admin interfaceVerify Fix Applied:
Verify the version is 10.0.8.1 or later and test CSRF protections are functioning📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected administrative actions from user accounts
- Multiple failed authentication attempts followed by successful actions
- Requests missing CSRF tokens
Network Indicators:
- Unusual outbound connections following administrative actions
- Requests with mismatched referer headers
SIEM Query:
source="ibm_verify_access" AND (action="admin_change" OR action="config_modify") AND user_agent CONTAINS "malicious"