Security researchers have identified three critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM), a tool used by organizations to manage and audit user access rights. These vulnerabilities, which allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges, were reported through Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative.
SolarWinds has addressed all the vulnerabilities with a patch available in version 2023.2.1 of its Access Rights Manager. Executing code in the context of “SYSTEM” on Windows grants attackers the highest privileges on the victim’s machine, providing full control over all files.
The three critical RCE vulnerabilities are identified as CVE-2023-35182, CVE-2023-35185, and CVE-2023-35187, all rated with a severity of 9.8. These flaws enable remote unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code due to deserialization of untrusted data, a lack of validation of user-supplied paths, and insufficient authentication validation in specific methods. The other security issues in SolarWinds ARM were high-severity, which could be exploited by attackers to elevate permissions or execute arbitrary code following authentication.
SolarWinds has provided a patch for these vulnerabilities, ensuring better security for users. It’s important to note that SolarWinds didn’t classify any of the security issues as critical, with the highest rating being 8.8 for high-severity issues. Nevertheless, the prompt action to address these vulnerabilities is crucial in safeguarding user access rights and overall IT security.
