CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-21545 — Proxmox Virtual Environment is an open-source server management platform for enterprise virtualization

High CVSS 8.2

Proxmox Virtual Environment is an open-source server management platform for enterprise virtualization. Insufficient safeguards against malicious API response values allow authenticated attackers with 'Sys.Audit' or 'VM.Monitor' privileges to download arbitrary host files via the API. When handling the result from a request handler before returning it to the user, the handle_api2_request function will check for the ‘download’ or ‘data’->’download’ objects inside the request handler call response object. If present, handle_api2_request will read a local file defined by this object and return it to the user. Two endpoints were identified which can control the object returned by a request handler sufficiently that the ’download’ object is defined and user controlled. This results in arbitrary file read. The privileges of this file read can result in full compromise of the system by various impacts such as disclosing sensitive files allowing for privileged session forgery.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.2 (3.1)
Published
2024-09-25
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-73

Affected products

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Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

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Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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