Overview
In today’s cybersecurity landscape, the threat of sophisticated network attacks looms large. One such vulnerability, CVE-2023-41591, has been identified in the Open Network Foundation ONOS v2.7.0. This severe security flaw allows malicious actors to execute a man-in-the-middle attack, creating fake IP/MAC addresses and potentially compromising system integrity or leading to substantial data leakage. This vulnerability is especially concerning due to the high CVSS severity score and the potential impact on any organization utilizing the affected software.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2023-41591
Severity: Critical (CVSS: 9.8)
Attack Vector: Local Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Open Network Foundation ONOS | v2.7.0
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability exploits a flaw in the ONOS v2.7.0 software that fails to properly validate and authenticate the IP/MAC addresses. This allows an attacker to spoof fake IP/MAC addresses and insert them into the network. With this, they can impersonate legitimate network hosts and intercept, alter, or control the communication between real hosts, effectively executing a man-in-the-middle attack. The flaw, therefore, provides a dangerous foothold for attackers to manipulate the network communication, leading to system compromise or significant data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
While the specific exploit code is not publicly available, the concept of the attack can be explained. An attacker could potentially use a tool such as Scapy to generate and send packets with spoofed IP/MAC addresses, as represented in the pseudocode below:
from scapy.all import *
# Create a fake Ethernet frame with a spoofed source MAC address
ethernet_frame = Ether(src="00:00:00:00:00:00", dst="00:00:00:00:00:00")
# Create a fake IP packet with a spoofed source IP address
ip_packet = IP(src="0.0.0.0", dst="0.0.0.0")
# Combine the Ethernet frame and IP packet and send it on the network
sendp(ethernet_frame/ip_packet)In the above code, an attacker would replace the zeroes with valid, but spoofed, MAC and IP addresses to make the attack appear as a valid network communication.
Preventive Measures and Mitigation
To mitigate the impact of this vulnerability, it is highly recommended to apply the vendor’s patch once it is available. In the interim, deploying a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as temporary mitigation by monitoring for and blocking any suspicious network activity. Furthermore, strict network segmentation and MAC address filtering can also prevent unauthorized access to the network, thereby limiting the potential for this exploit.