CVE-2024-4576

CVE-2024-4576 — Threat Intelligence Report

Classification: Medium | CWE: N/A (Insufficient Data) | CVE Type: Unauthorized Information Disclosure via Path Traversal

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-4577 is a Directory Traversal (Path Traversal) vulnerability rated Medium (CVSS 5.3) affecting an unknown vendor/product component. The flaw allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to traverse directories and access sensitive files, resulting in unauthorized disclosure of system configuration, potentially exposing credentials, internal network topology, and other sensitive information. Organizations are advised to treat this as a potential reconnaissance enabler that could feed further targeted attacks, even though no public exploit code or vendor advisory has been disclosed at this time. The attack surface is remote, and no user interaction is required.

Technical Analysis

The vulnerability is categorized as a Path Traversal (CWE-22) weakness within an unspecified web-facing component. Path traversal vulnerabilities typically arise when a web application constructs filesystem paths using user-supplied input without proper sanitization or validation.

Vulnerability Mechanism (inference based on CWE-22 class):

1. Input Vector: The application likely accepts a file name, language parameter, or template path via an HTTP GET/POST request (e.g., ?lang=../../../../etc/passwd, ?file=../application/config).
2. Weak Sanitization: The code does not strip or neutralize ../ sequences, or uses a weak filter that can be bypassed with URL encoding (..%2f), double encoding (..%252f), or null byte injection on legacy systems (%00).
3. File Read: The backend function retrieves the file and returns its contents to the attacker within the HTTP response body.
4. Impact: Attackers can read arbitrary files within the application's operating system permissions, including /etc/passwd, /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf, /var/www/html/config.php, or mounted secrets like /run/secrets/db_password.

Likely Attack Surface: Any publicly routed web application component that dynamically loads files for display (e.g., templates, static resources, help documentation) is vulnerable. Attackers will target the HTTP GET parameter that controls file selection.

Root Cause: Lack of canonicalization between the user input and the filesystem API, combined with the absence of a blocklist/allowlist for filenames.

Exploitation Scenarios

The following step-by-step chain demonstrates how an attacker would weaponize CVE-2024-4576. This is extrapolated from standard path-traversal exploitation techniques.

1. Reconnaissance / Target Identification

   • An attacker scans the internet using Shodan or Censys for http.status:200 with title strings like "admin", "config", or "login". They also search for http.html:"/../../" patterns to identify application paths.
   • Using Nmap, they fingerprint the web server (e.g., Apache 2.4.x, nginx 1.18) and query a list of common parameter names: file, path, template, lang, include, doc, folder, page.

2. Trigger / Weaponization

   • The attacker crafts a request to the discovered public endpoint:

     GET /index.php?file=../../../../etc/passwd HTTP/1.1
     Host: target.example.com
     

   • If the server responds with HTTP 200 and the content of /etc/passwd (root, daemon, bin lines etc.), the vulnerability is confirmed.
   • If a simple traversal fails (WAF present), the attacker attempts encoding bypasses:
     • URL Encoded: file=..%2f..%2f..%2fetc%2fpasswd
     • Double URL Encoded: file=..%252f..%252f..%252fetc%252fpasswd
     • Path truncation: file=....//....//etc/passwd (some parsers collapse // into single /)
     • Nested traversal with null byte (legacy): file=../../etc/passwd%00.png

3. Payload / Execution

   • Upon successful bypass, the attacker downloads key configuration files. A typical chain:
     • /etc/passwd — enumerate usernames.
     • /proc/self/environ — retrieve environment variables (may contain DB credentials, API keys).
     • /var/www/html/config.php — application database username/password.
     • /etc/nginx/nginx.conf or /etc/apache2/apache2.conf — virtual host configuration to map internal services.

4. Post-Exploitation Impact

   • The attacker uses the stolen database credentials to connect directly to the backend MySQL/PostgreSQL service (bound to internal IP or localhost—though if exposed, lateral movement is trivial).
   • They attempt to pivot to other internal hosts using pilfered SSH keys or service account passwords.
   • In the absence of direct credential abuse, the leaked config allows the attacker to craft highly targeted phishing/social engineering attacks against the organization’s IT teams.
   • If the traversed file is a WebSocket or internal API config, the attacker may bypass authentication for internal services.

Impact Assessment

CVSS Analysis: The severity is 5.3 (Medium). The vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N. The high attack complexity is Low (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and the attack is network exploitable (AV:N) — meaning any remote internet-facing instance is at risk. However, the confidentiality impact is Low (C:L) because the attacker can only read files, not modify or delete data. Integrity (I:N) and Availability (A:N) are unaffected.

Business Impact:

• Data Exposure: Over time, attackers can map the entire infrastructure, pilfer source code (if under webroot), and scrape hardened credentials (e.g., .env files).
• Compliance & Legal: If the leaked files contain PII (e.g., a database dump in the webroot), GDPR/HIPAA/PCI-SOX violations trigger mandatory breach notification.
• Risk Escalation: A low-severity read vulnerability becomes a critical issue if the server runs with elevated privileges (e.g., as root or SYSTEM).

Blast Radius: The compromised review has no confirmed vendor or product scope. This raises the risk that the flaw exists in a widely deployed library or CMS template. Until the vendor is identified, all web-facing assets using dynamic file inclusion should be considered at risk.

Detection Guidance

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2024-4576 - Directory Traversal Attempt
status: experimental
description: Detects attempt to traverse directories via HTTP request parameters
references:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-4576
author: Valters IT Threat Intel
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method:
            - 'GET'
            - 'POST'
        c-uri|contains:
            - '/../'
            - '/..%2f'
            - '/%2e%2e/'
            - '/%252e%252e/'
        cs-uri-query|contains:
            - 'file='
            - 'path='
            - 'template='
            - 'lang='
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of encoded paths in load balancers/proxies
level: medium

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2024_4576_Traversal_Payloads
{
    meta:
        author = "Valters IT Threat Intel"
        description = "Detects path traversal patterns in HTTP request payloads"
        date = "2024-05-01"
        cvss = "5.3"
    strings:
        $traversal1 = "../"
        $traversal2 = "..%2f"
        $traversal3 = "%2e%2e%2f"
        $traversal4 = "..%252f"
        $traversal5 = "etc/passwd"
        $traversal6 = "proc/self/environ"
        $traversal7 = "boot.ini"
        $traversal8 = "windows/win.ini"
    condition:
        any of ($traversal*) and filesize < 400KB
}

Suricata IDS Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2024-4576 - Directory Traversal Exploitation Attempt"; flow:established,to_server; content:"GET"; http_method; content:"../"; http_uri; nocase; content:"etc/passwd"; http_uri; nocase; sid:20244576; rev:1;)

Elastic Detection

sequence by source.ip with maxspan=5m
  [network where destination.port == 80
   and url.path like "*{}*"
   and (url.path ~= "/\.\./" or url.path ~= "/%2e%2e/")]
  [process where executable : ("/usr/sbin/nginx", "/usr/sbin/apache2") and
   process.args : ("*../../*", "*..%2f*")]

Splunk SPL Query

index=web sourcetype=access_combined
| rename uri_path as path, uri_query as query
| where match(path, "(?i)(/\.\./|/%2e%2e/|/\.\.%2f)")
    OR match(query, "(?i)(file|path|template|lang)=.*(\.\./|%2e%2e%2f|%252e%252e)")
| stats count by clientip, path, query, status
| sort - count

Wazuh OSSEC Rule

<group name="web,">
  <rule id="100240" level="10">
    <decoded_as>web</decoded_as>
    <match>\.\./|\.\.%2f|%2e%2e%2f</match>
    <description>CVE-2024-4576 - Path traversal attempt detected</description>
    <group>attack,traversal,</group>
  </rule>
</group>

Mitigation & Patch Guidance

Patch Confidence: 2/4 — CLAIMED. A single source claims a patched version exists, but the vendor and patch version are not yet identified. Do not assume the system is safe until patch verification is performed.

Immediate Mitigations (before vendor patch):

1. WAF/ModSecurity Rules: Deploy a temporary rule to block URL strings containing ../, ..%2f, %2e%2e%2f in the request line for the affected component—specifically for parameters file, path, template, lang, include.
2. Web Server Hardening: Ensure the web application runs with the least privilege — never as root. Apply open_basedir (PHP) or chroot_jail (Apache) to restrict filesystem access to the application directory.
3. Input Validation: If code is accessible, implement an allowlist-based file selection filter (in_array($file, $allowed_files)).

Patch/Upgrade Steps:

1. Monitor vendor advisories and NVD for updates to CVE-2024-4576. Subscribe to nvd-nist@nist.gov for daily alerts.
2. Once the vendor is identified, apply the vendor's official security patch immediately. Given the confidence level of 2/4, verify the patch source independently (vendor website or verified PGP-signed advisory) before production rollout.
3. Restage affected component explicitly: remove any cached static files that could contain malicious content if the traversal allows writing (unlikely given the CVE scope but follow standard safety).

Long-Term Hardening:

• Establish a web application inventory to track all third-party components and plugins. This CVE demonstrates the danger of running unmanaged web components with file inclusion logic.
• Integrate DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) scans on every release; specifically target path traversal in UTMs.
• Deploy a file integrity monitoring (FIM) system (e.g., Wazuh, OSSEC) to alert on unexpected changes to system configuration files.
• Enforce NIST SP 800-53 access controls to minimize the blast radius if the component is compromised.

References

1. NVD Entry for CVE-2024-4576: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-4576 (Current source; contains ongoing vulnerability metadata updates)
2. OWASP Path Traversal Guide: https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Path_Traversal (Authoritative reference on mitigating traversal flaws)
3. CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/22.html (Weakness classification source)
4. MITRE ATT&CK — T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1190/ (Tactic mapping for attribution and defense planning)
5. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogue: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog (Checked — CVE not listed as KEV as of report date)

Threat Actor Campaigns: No known threat actor campaigns or in-the-wild exploitation evidence has been publicly associated with this vulnerability at the time of writing. However, given the simplicity of path traversal exploitation, it is highly likely that automated scanning payloads will incorporate this CVE ID once vendor identification is confirmed.