CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-15321 — F5 Big-Ip Local Traffic Manager security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 5.5

When BIG-IP 14.0.0-14.0.0.2, 13.0.0-13.1.0.5, 12.1.0-12.1.3.5, 11.6.0-11.6.3.2, or 11.2.1-11.5.6, BIG-IQ Centralized Management 5.0.0-5.4.0 or 4.6.0, BIG-IQ Cloud and Orchestration 1.0.0, iWorkflow 2.1.0-2.3.0, or Enterprise Manager 3.1.1 is licensed for Appliance Mode, Admin and Resource administrator roles can by-pass BIG-IP Appliance Mode restrictions to overwrite critical system files. Attackers of high privilege level are able to overwrite critical system files which bypasses security controls in place to limit TMSH commands. This is possible with an administrator or resource administrator roles when granted TMSH. Resource administrator roles must have TMSH access in order to perform this attack.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.5 (2.0)
Published
2018-10-31
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-269

Affected products

  • f5 / big-ip_local_traffic_manager
  • f5 / big-ip_advanced_firewall_manager
  • f5 / big-ip_application_acceleration_manager

Showing 3 representative product identities from 70 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

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Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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