medium

Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes privilege escalation

Published Tue, Oct 11th, 2022
Platforms

Summary

Azure Arc allows customers to connect on-premises Kubernetes clusters to Azure. This is facilitated by middleware (the Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes agent) which includes a "cluster connect" feature in the form of a reverse proxy. A vulnerability in this feature could allow an unauthenticated user to elevate their privileges and potentially gain remote administrative control over any Azure Arc-enabled cluster, as long as they know its randomly generated external DNS endpoint. Azure Stack Edge devices are also affected, because the service supports deployment of Kubernetes workloads via Azure Arc.

Affected Services

Azure Arc, Azure Stack Edge

Remediation

For Azure Arc customers using auto-upgrade (which is enabled by default), no action is required. Otherwise, the Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes agent must be updated to versions 1.5.8, 1.6.19, 1.7.18 or 1.8.11 (see link to instructions in references). Azure Stack Edge customers must update to the 2209 release (software version 2.2.2088.5593).

Tracked CVEs

CVE-2022-37968

References

Disclosure Date
Tue, Oct 11th, 2022
Exploitablity Period
-
Known ITW Exploitation
-
Detection Methods
-
Piercing Index Rating
-
Discovered by
Mo Khan, Microsoft