CVE-2024-37183

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-37183 is a vulnerability involving the transmission of plaintext credentials and session identifiers over unencrypted network channels, exposing them to passive interception by network sniffers. The vulnerability affects an unidentified vendor/product per available CVE metadata, though the vulnerability class strongly suggests a web application, authentication service, or network-accessible protocol implementation. An attacker positioned on the same network segment—or any intermediary hop between client and server—can capture authentication material and session tokens, leading to account takeover, session hijacking, and lateral movement. The vulnerability carries a CVSS base score of 5.7 (Medium severity), reflecting the requirement for network-level access and the conditional nature of successful exploitation.

Technical Analysis

The root cause of CVE-2024-37183 is the transmission of sensitive authentication data—specifically plaintext credentials and session identifiers—over a communication channel that lacks transport-layer encryption (e.g., TLS/SSL). This design flaw permits any entity capable of performing packet capture on the network path to recover the exposed material using standard tools such as Wireshark, tcpdump, or network taps.

The attack surface consists of any client-server interaction where the application performs authentication or issues session tokens. This includes login forms submitting credentials over cleartext HTTP, APIs lacking mandatory TLS enforcement, legacy protocols (e.g., Telnet, FTP, SMTP without STARTTLS), or applications that mishandle session cookies by failing to set the Secure flag. Additionally, session IDs transmitted via URL parameters or insecurely stored cookies are susceptible to interception, as are credentials sent in POST bodies without HTTPS.

Code-level explanation: A typical vulnerable endpoint would accept a POST request to /login containing username=admin&password=secret. The server validates these fields and responds with a Set-Cookie: sessionid=abc123; Path=/ header lacking the Secure; attribute. Both the credentials (in the POST body) and the session ID (in the response header and subsequent requests) traverse the network in cleartext. A sniffer capturing the traffic at any point between the client and server extracts both the plaintext password and the session token.

The vulnerability is particularly dangerous when combined with session fixation or session prediction weaknesses, as the intercepted session ID can be replayed directly. The plaintext credential exposure further enables credential stuffing attacks against other services if the user reuses passwords.

Exploitation Scenarios

Attack chain for CVE-2024-37183:

1. Reconnaissance & Target Identification

   • The attacker first identifies a network segment (e.g., public Wi-Fi, corporate LAN, or a compromised network switch's span port) where the target application's traffic flows.
   • Using network scanning tools (e.g., Nmap) or passive tools like bettercap, the attacker maps hosts and identifies unencrypted services. Detection of port 80 (HTTP) or 23 (Telnet) responses, or interception of traffic during a legitimate user's login, confirms the target.

2. Trigger / Weaponization

   • The attacker positions themselves for sniffing: connecting to the same Wi-Fi network, plugging into a hub/span port, or compromising a router/hop along the path.
   • The attacker launches a packet capture tool (e.g., Wireshark with display filter http.request.method == "POST" and http contains "password" or tcpdump -i eth0 -A port 80). They optionally enable ARP spoofing (arpspoof -i eth0 -t <client> <gateway>) to redirect traffic through their host if passive sniffing is insufficient on switched networks.

3. Payload / Execution

   • The attacker waits for, or triggers, an authentication event. This can be accelerated by sending a phishing link to a target user (e.g., via email containing a URL to the vulnerable application), prompting a login.
   • When the target submits credentials, the sniffer captures the POST body containing the username/password in plaintext.
   • Similarly, the attacker captures subsequent Cookie: headers or URL parameters containing the session ID. Extraction is trivial: tshark -r capture.pcap -Y "http.cookie" -T fields -e http.cookie.

4. Post-Exploitation Impact

   • The attacker replays the captured session ID by injecting it into their own browser via document.cookie for the target domain, achieving full session hijack without re-authentication.
   • Alternatively, the attacker uses the captured plaintext credentials to log directly into the application, potentially bypassing multi-factor authentication if MFA is not enforced or if the application allows session-based access without MFA re-validation.
   • With authenticated access, the attacker can exfiltrate data, perform unauthorized transactions, pivot to internal systems using the same credentials, or escalate privileges depending on the compromised account's permissions.

Impact Assessment

Business Impact: The vulnerability enables credential theft and unauthorized session access. Successful exploitation results in account takeover, data confidentiality breaches, and potential regulatory non-compliance (e.g., GDPR, PCI DSS) if plaintext credentials are found to violate security policies. The indirect nature of the attack (requiring network position) limits internet-facing remote exploitability, but increases risk for internal networks and public Wi-Fi environments.

Affected Systems: Systems running the vulnerable application/service that do not enforce TLS/SSL for authentication traffic. This includes web applications, API gateways, legacy network appliances, and any client-server software transmitting credentials in cleartext.

Blast Radius (CVSS Reference, Score 5.7 — Medium): The CVSS vector reflects a vulnerability requiring network access (AV:A or AV:N with proximity constraints), with a potential for high confidentiality impact (C:H), likely low integrity and availability impact. The attack complexity is LOW (AC:L) as no special conditions are needed beyond intercepting traffic. While user interaction may be required (UI:R if login must be prompted), the impact is contained to account-level compromise rather than system-level RCE, hence Medium severity.

Detection Guidance

Sigma Rule

title: Plaintext Credential Transmission Over HTTP
id: 8f8a2c4e-9c2e-4b9f-8e5a-1c2d3e4f5a6b
status: experimental
description: Detects POST requests containing credential fields (password, passwd, pwd) sent over unencrypted HTTP
references:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-37183
author: Valtersit Threat Intel
date: 2024/01/01
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: generic
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: POST
        cs-uri-extension: 
            - 'login'
            - 'auth'
            - 'signin'
        cs-body|contains:
            - 'password='
            - 'passwd='
            - 'pwd='
        cs-protocol: http
    condition: selection
fields:
    - c-ip
    - cs-username
    - cs-uri-stem
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate legacy applications without TLS support
    - Local development environments
level: high

YARA Rule

rule Detect_Plaintext_Credential_Transmission {
    meta:
        author = "Valtersit Threat Intel"
        description = "Detects network traffic containing plaintext credential fields"
        cve = "CVE-2024-37183"
        date = "2024-01-01"
        severity = "medium"
    strings:
        $pw_field = /(password|passwd|pwd|pass)=/
        $user_field = /(username|user|login)=/
        $cookie_field = "Set-Cookie:"
        $session_token = /session(id|token)?=[a-zA-Z0-9]{20,}/
        $http_200 = "HTTP/1.1 200 OK"
        $http_301 = "HTTP/1.1 301"
    condition:
        all of them
}

Suricata IDS Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2024-37183 — Plaintext Credential Transmitted over HTTP"; flow:to_server,established; http.method; content:"POST"; http.uri; content:"login"; http.client_body; pcre:"/(password|passwd|pwd|pass)=\w+/i"; sid:2024371831; rev:1; reference:cve,2024-37183; metadata:created_at 2024-01-01, updated_at 2024-01-01; classtype:policy-violation;)

Elastic Detection

sequence with maxspan=10s
  [ http where request.method == "POST" and 
    request.uri contains "login" and 
    request.body contains "password"=""
  ]
  [ http where response.status_code == 200 and 
    response.headers contains "Set-Cookie"
  ]

Splunk SPL Query

index=web sourcetype=iis OR sourcetype=apache OR sourcetype=access_combined
| where method="POST" AND uri_path IN ("/login", "/auth", "/signin") AND protocol="http"
| regex _raw "(?i)(password|passwd|pwd)=\S+"
| table _time, clientip, useragent, uri_path, method, status, referer
| stats count by clientip, uri_path

Wazuh OSSEC Rule

<group name="web,">
  <rule id="766304" level="10">
    <decoded>post</decoded>
    <match>password=|passwd=|pwd=</match>
    <match>login|auth|signin</match>
    <description>CVE-2024-37183: Plaintext credentials transmitted without TLS</description>
    <group>authentication_failures,cve_2024_37183,</group>
    <mitre>
      <id>T1040</id>
    </mitre>
  </rule>
</group>

Mitigation & Patch Guidance

Patch Confidence: 2/4 — CLAIMED (single source claims patch exists, not independently confirmed). The NVD description does not specify a version range, and no vendor advisory has been published. Treat the patch status as unverified; aggressively apply all available mitigations regardless.

1. Immediate Mitigations (apply now):

   • Enforce TLS 1.2 or higher on all authentication endpoints. Redirect HTTP to HTTPS via server-side 301 rules and HSTS headers (Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains).
   • If TLS cannot be enabled immediately, restrict the application to trusted network segments only and isolate it with network ACLs to prevent access over shared/public infrastructure.
   • Set the Secure and HttpOnly flags on all session cookies to prevent interception and client-side script access.

2. Patch/Upgrade Steps (when patch confirmed):

   • Identify the exact product version — contact the vendor or inspect application manifests.
   • Apply the vendor-patched build once released, ensuring it enforces transport-layer security by default.
   • If no patch materializes, plan for application replacement or front-ending with a TLS-terminating reverse proxy (e.g., Nginx, HAProxy) that forces HTTPS.

3. Long-Term Hardening:

   • Implement Network Access Control (NAC) and network segmentation to reduce attacker position on credential-bearing network segments.
   • Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) with rules to block non-TLS HTTP authentication requests.
   • Rotate all credentials and session keys that may have been exposed.
   • Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the impact of credential theft.
   • Conduct regular TLS configuration audits (e.g., using testssl.sh) to ensure no authentication endpoint regresses to cleartext.

References

• NVD Entry: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-37183
• FIRST EPSS (no scoring yet): https://www.first.org/epss/
• OWASP Transport Layer Protection Cheat Sheet: https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Transport_Layer_Protection_Cheat_Sheet.html
• MITRE ATT&CK — Network Sniffing (T1040): https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1040/

CISA KEV: No — this CVE is not listed in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. No threat actor campaigns or exploit-in-the-wild evidence has been publicly documented for this CVE as of this report.