CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-50921 — An issue was discovered on GL.iNet devices through 4.5.0

Critical CVSS 9.8

An issue was discovered on GL.iNet devices through 4.5.0. Attackers can invoke the add_user interface in the system module to gain root privileges. This affects A1300 4.4.6, AX1800 4.4.6, AXT1800 4.4.6, MT3000 4.4.6, MT2500 4.4.6, MT6000 4.5.0, MT1300 4.3.7, MT300N-V2 4.3.7, AR750S 4.3.7, AR750 4.3.7, AR300M 4.3.7, and B1300 4.3.7.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2024-01-03
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-269

Affected products

  • gl-inet / gl-mt1300_firmware / 4.3.7
  • gl-inet / gl-mt300n-v2_firmware / 4.3.7
  • gl-inet / gl-ar750s_firmware / 4.3.7
  • gl-inet / gl-ar750_firmware / 4.3.7
  • gl-inet / gl-ar300m_firmware / 4.3.7
  • gl-inet / gl-b1300_firmware / 4.3.7

Showing 6 representative product identities from 12 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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