CVE-2024-25723
Published: 27 February 2024
Summary
CVE-2024-25723 is a high-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Zenml Zenml. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 0.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as Other Platforms; in the Other ATLAS/OWASP Terms risk domain; MITRE ATLAS techniques in scope: Data from Local System (AML.T0037), AML.T0039, Impersonation (AML.T0073).
Deeper analysis
The vulnerability affects the ZenML Server component of the ZenML machine learning operations package for Python prior to version 0.46.7. It stems from improper access control in the /api/v1/users/{user_name_or_id}/activate REST API endpoint, which permits password changes based solely on a supplied username without additional authentication checks. The flaw is tracked under CWE-284 and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8.
An authenticated remote attacker who knows or can enumerate a valid username can supply a new password in the request body to the activation endpoint, thereby taking over the account and achieving full privilege escalation with high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
ZenML has released fixes in versions 0.46.7, 0.44.4, 0.43.1, and 0.42.2; the project repository and accompanying security advisory recommend immediate upgrade to one of these releases. The current EPSS score stands at 0.8964, reflecting elevated exploitation likelihood for this machine-learning platform component.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-0730
Vulnerability details
ZenML Server in the ZenML machine learning package before 0.46.7 for Python allows remote privilege escalation because the /api/v1/users/{user_name_or_id}/activate REST API endpoint allows access on the basis of a valid username along with a new password in the request body.…
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These are also patched versions: 0.44.4, 0.43.1, and 0.42.2.
- CWE(s)
AI Security AnalysisAI
- AI Category
- Other Platforms
- Risk Domain
- Other ATLAS/OWASP Terms
- OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
- None mapped
- Classification Reason
- ZenML is an open-source MLOps framework for machine learning workflows, fitting 'Other Platforms' as an ML operations platform/server, not matching more specific categories like deep learning frameworks or NLP libraries.
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The vulnerability enables remote exploitation of the public-facing ZenML Server REST API (/api/v1/users/{user_name_or_id}/activate) to perform privilege escalation by activating accounts with a known username and arbitrary new password, without requiring authentication.
MITRE ATLAS TechniquesAI
MITRE ATLAS techniques
Affected Assets
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.
The access control policy and procedures directly mandate and enforce proper access control mechanisms across the organization.
Device lock enforces restricted access until re-authentication, directly reducing unauthorized use of active sessions.
Supervision and review of access control activities directly detects and remediates improper access configurations or usages.
Explicitly identifying and documenting actions permitted without identification or authentication enforces proper access control boundaries by defining justified exceptions.
By automatically labeling outputs with security attributes, the control supports attribute-based enforcement and reduces exploitability of improper access control weaknesses.
Associating and retaining security attributes with data directly supports enforcement of access control decisions across storage, processing, and transmission.
Requiring prior authorization for each remote access type prevents improper access control over remote connections.
Requiring authorization of wireless access before allowing connections enforces proper access control for this access method.