Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-41100

High

Published: 04 October 2021

Published
04 October 2021
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 7.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0030 53.8th percentile
Risk Priority 15 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2021-41100 is a high-severity Improper Authorization (CWE-285) vulnerability in Wire Wire-Server. Its CVSS base score is 7.4 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 46.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Wire-server is the backing server for the open source wire secure messaging application. In affected versions it is possible to trigger email address change of a user with only the short-lived session token in the `Authorization` header. As the short-lived…

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token is only meant as means of authentication by the client for less critical requests to the backend, the ability to change the email address with a short-lived token constitutes a privilege escalation attack. Since the attacker can change the password after setting the email address to one that they control, changing the email address can result in an account takeover by the attacker. Short-lived tokens can be requested from the backend by Wire clients using the long lived tokens, after which the long lived tokens can be stored securely, for example on the devices key chain. The short lived tokens can then be used to authenticate the client towards the backend for frequently performed actions such as sending and receiving messages. While short-lived tokens should not be available to an attacker per-se, they are used more often and in the shape of an HTTP header, increasing the risk of exposure to an attacker relative to the long-lived tokens, which are stored and transmitted in cookies. If you are running an on-prem instance and provision all users with SCIM, you are not affected by this issue (changing email is blocked for SCIM users). SAML single-sign-on is unaffected by this issue, and behaves identically before and after this update. The reason is that the email address used as SAML NameID is stored in a different location in the databse from the one used to contact the user outside wire. Version 2021-08-16 and later provide a new end-point that requires both the long-lived client cookie and `Authorization` header. The old end-point has been removed. If you are running an on-prem instance with at least some of the users invited or provisioned via SAML SSO and you cannot update then you can block `/self/email` on nginz (or in any other proxies or firewalls you may have set up). You don't need to discriminate by verb: `/self/email` only accepts `PUT` and `DELETE`, and `DELETE` is almost never used.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

wire
wire-server
≤ 2021-08-16

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-285

Documented procedures facilitate correct implementation and ongoing management of authorization decisions.

addresses: CWE-613

Locks the device (typically after inactivity) until re-authentication, addressing insufficient session expiration by preventing indefinite access.

addresses: CWE-613

Automatically terminating sessions after a defined period directly enforces session expiration, preventing indefinite session lifetimes that attackers can exploit.

addresses: CWE-285

Periodic reviews identify and correct flaws in authorization decisions or enforcement.

addresses: CWE-285

The control's documentation requirement reduces improper authorization by ensuring only mission-justified actions bypass authentication.

addresses: CWE-285

Establishing permitted attributes and values, plus auditing changes, ensures authorization decisions are based on correctly managed policy data.

addresses: CWE-285

Explicitly mandates authorizing remote access types before permitting connections, directly mitigating improper authorization.

addresses: CWE-285

The control explicitly requires authorization of each wireless access type prior to permitting connections.

References