Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2018-6959: VMware Vrealize Automation: Session Fixation

CVE-2018-6959 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.8 and affects VMware Vrealize Automation. 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

VMware vRealize Automation (vRA) prior to 7.4.0 contains a vulnerability in the handling of session IDs. Exploitation of this issue may lead to the hijacking of a valid vRA user's session.

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.

Underlying weakness

CWE-384: Session Fixation

Authenticating a user, or otherwise establishing a new user session, without invalidating any existing session identifier gives an attacker the opportunity to steal authenticated sessions.

Affected products

  • VMware Vrealize Automation: before 7.4.0

References