External risk intelligence

Microsoft OMI Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability.

CVE advisoryKnown Exploit

CVE-2021-38648

A vulnerability in Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) allows for privilege escalation, potentially impacting system confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This could lead to unauthorized access and control, posing a business risk to affected organizations.

1Halo Surface Signal

Microsoft Azure Automation State Configuration

External exposure likelihood

Halo Surface Signal score for CVE-2021-38648

Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) is a local management agent installed on systems to handle administrative tasks and monitoring. It is designed to operate locally within the system or management environment, not as a public-facing service, and typically does not have direct exposure to the public internet.

Horizon Alert

Summary of the vulnerability and why it matters

Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) is vulnerable due to a flaw in its management interface. This weakness allows for an elevation of privilege, which could impact the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected systems. The potential business risk includes unauthorized access and control over critical systems.

  • Vulnerable: Open Management Infrastructure (OMI)
  • Weakness: Elevation of privilege
  • Impact: Unauthorized system access and control

Attack Path

How an attacker could exploit the issue

An attacker can exploit a vulnerability in the Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) to elevate their privileges on a system. This occurs when an authenticated user with limited permissions can interact with the OMI service. The attacker triggers the vulnerability through specific actions, allowing them to gain elevated control over the affected system. This control can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data and the ability to disrupt system operations.

  • Requires authenticated local access.
  • Attacker triggers a specific action.
  • Results in elevated system control.

Live Threat

Current exploitation, exposure, and threat context

This vulnerability presents a significant risk to organizations utilizing Microsoft's Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) components. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized access and modification of critical systems and data. The nature of this vulnerability suggests that an attacker with a certain level of access could escalate their privileges, potentially gaining administrative control. Given its inclusion in a catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities, organizations should treat this with a high degree of urgency.

  • Attacker skill level: Likely requires advanced skills.
  • Required access or conditions: Local system access is necessary.
  • Business risk or urgency: High, treat as urgent.

Priority actions

Operational Fix

Recommended remediation, mitigation, and detection steps

An organization should identify systems running the affected Microsoft Open Management Infrastructure components to understand the potential impact. Reducing exposure by isolating these systems or restricting access can mitigate immediate risks. Applying vendor-provided fixes and verifying their successful implementation are critical steps, followed by ongoing monitoring for any related malicious activity.

  • Find exposed assets.
  • Reduce exposure or isolate risk.
  • Fix, verify, and monitor.

Frequently asked questions

What is Azure Automation State Configuration?

Azure Automation State Configuration is a service that uses Desired State Configuration (DSC) to provide cloud-based, script-based administration for your infrastructure. It allows you to manage the configuration of your Azure virtual machines and on-premises servers.

What weakness class does CVE-2021-38648 represent?

CVE-2021-38648 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability. This means an attacker could use it to gain higher-level permissions on an affected system than they were initially granted.

What does NOT trigger the CVE-2021-38648 vulnerability?

This vulnerability is not triggered by unauthenticated access. An attacker must already have some level of authenticated, limited permissions on the affected system to exploit this weakness.

Who should care about CVE-2021-38648 given Halo Surface Signal data?

Organizations using Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) on systems that are not directly exposed to the public internet should care. While OMI is typically an internal management agent, this vulnerability could still allow for privilege escalation within your environment.

What is the first step for running Open Management Infrastructure (OMI)?

The first step is to identify all systems running the affected Microsoft Open Management Infrastructure components within your organization to understand the scope of potential impact.

References