Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2016-1984: Harman Amx Firmware: Hard-coded credentials or backdoor

CVE-2016-1984 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.8 and NVD lists Harman Amx Firmware as the affected product. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

The setUpSubtleUserAccount function in /bin/bw on Harman AMX devices before 2016-01-20 has a hardcoded password for the 1MB@tMaN account, which makes it easier for remote attackers to obtain access via a (1) SSH or (2) HTTP session, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-8362.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 9.8: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Affected products

  • Harman Amx Firmware: 1.2.322; 1.3.100

References