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GHSA-7h8m-pvw3-5gh4

CriticalCVSS 9.1 / 10
Published Oct 25, 2024·Last modified Apr 17, 2025
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Impact

A vulnerability has been identified whereby Rancher Manager deployments containing Windows nodes have weak Access Control Lists (ACL), allowing BUILTIN\Users or NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users to view or edit sensitive files which could lead to privilege escalation.

The affected files include binaries, scripts, configuration and log files:

C:\etc\rancher\wins\config
C:\var\lib\rancher\agent\rancher2_connection_info.json
C:\etc\rancher\rke2\config.yaml.d\50-rancher.yaml
C:\var\lib\rancher\agent\applied\*-*-applied.plan
C:\usr\local\bin\rke2
C:\var\lib\rancher\capr\idempotence\idempotent.sh

RKE2 nodes expand the list to include the files below:

C:\etc\rancher\node\password
C:\var\lib\rancher\rke2\agent\logs\kubelet.log
C:\var\lib\rancher\rke2\data\v1.**.**-rke2r*-windows-amd64-*\bin\*
C:\var\lib\rancher\rke2\bin\*

This vulnerability is exclusive to deployments that contain Windows nodes. Linux-only environments are not affected by it.

Please consult the associated MITRE ATT&CK - Technique - Exploitation for Privilege Escalation for further information about this category of attack.

Patches

Patched versions include Rancher Manager 2.8.9 and 2.9.3. For RKE2 Windows nodes, please refer to its specific advisory. No patches are available for 2.7, therefore users are urged to upgrade to newer minor versions or to apply the manual workaround below.

Workarounds

Users are advised to upgrade to a patched version of Rancher Manager. When that is not possible, users can enforce stricter ACLs for all sensitive files affected by this Security Advisory running this PowerShell script as an Administrator on each node.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Risk Scores
Base Score
9.1

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker needs high-level or administrative privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability can affect other systems as well, not just the initial system. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
8.3

Exploitation activity has been observed. Apply available patches or mitigations urgently.

EPSS
0.61%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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