CVE-2024-52517
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in Nextcloud Server exposes global credentials in plain text through the API response when an attacker has access to an active user session. It allows unauthorized reading of sensitive credentials stored on the server. All Nextcloud Server instances using affected versions are vulnerable.
💻 Affected Systems
- Nextcloud Server
- Nextcloud Enterprise Server
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers with session access can steal all global credentials, potentially compromising other integrated services and systems that use those credentials.
Likely Case
Attackers with compromised user sessions can read sensitive credentials, leading to data exposure and potential lateral movement within the environment.
If Mitigated
With proper session security and access controls, the impact is limited to authorized users only accessing their own credentials.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated session access. The vulnerability is straightforward to exploit once an attacker has session access.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Nextcloud Server: 28.0.11, 29.0.8, or 30.0.1; Nextcloud Enterprise Server: 25.0.13.13, 26.0.13.9, 27.1.11.9, 28.0.11, 29.0.8, or 30.0.1
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/nextcloud/security-advisories/security/advisories/GHSA-x9q3-c7f8-3rcg
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Backup your Nextcloud instance and database. 2. Update to the patched version using your package manager or manual download. 3. Run occ upgrade via command line. 4. Restart web server services. 5. Verify the update completed successfully.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Global Credentials Feature
linuxTemporarily disable the global credentials functionality until patching is complete
occ config:app:set core global_credentials_enabled --value false
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict session management and monitoring to detect unauthorized access
- Review and rotate all global credentials stored in Nextcloud
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check your Nextcloud version against affected versions. If using global credentials feature and version is vulnerable, assume exposure.Check Version:
occ status | grep 'versionstring'Verify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify version is patched and test that global credentials are no longer exposed in API responses.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual API calls to credentials endpoints
- Multiple credential access attempts from single session
Network Indicators:
- API requests to /ocs/v2.php/apps/provisioning_api/api/v1/config/apps/core/global_credentials
SIEM Query:
source="nextcloud.log" AND ("global_credentials" OR "provisioning_api") AND status=200