CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-17153 — It was discovered that the Western Digital My Cloud device before 2.30.196 is affected by an authentication bypass vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

It was discovered that the Western Digital My Cloud device before 2.30.196 is affected by an authentication bypass vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability to authenticate as an admin user without needing to provide a password, thereby gaining full control of the device. (Whenever an admin logs into My Cloud, a server-side session is created that is bound to the user's IP address. After the session is created, it is possible to call authenticated CGI modules by sending the cookie username=admin in the HTTP request. The invoked CGI will check if a valid session is present and bound to the user's IP address.) It was found that it is possible for an unauthenticated attacker to create a valid session without a login. The network_mgr.cgi CGI module contains a command called "cgi_get_ipv6" that starts an admin session -- tied to the IP address of the user making the request -- if the additional parameter "flag" with the value "1" is provided. Subsequent invocation of commands that would normally require admin privileges now succeed if an attacker sets the username=admin cookie.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.0)
Published
2018-09-18
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-287

Affected products

  • western_digital / my_cloud_wdbctl0020hwt_firmware
  • western_digital / my_cloud_pr4100
  • western_digital / my_cloud_pr2100_firmware
  • western_digital / my_cloud_mirror_gen_2_firmware
  • western_digital / my_cloud_mirror_firmware
  • western_digital / my_cloud_ex4100

Showing 6 representative product identities from 12 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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