CVE-2024-57967

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-57967 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in CyberArk Privileged Access Manager (PAM) Self-Hosted, specifically within the Password Vault Web Access (PVWA) component. The flaw resides in the LDAP mapping functionality, where improper handling of user attributes can lead to elevated privileges. An authenticated attacker with low-privileged access could exploit this to gain unintended permissions, potentially compromising sensitive vaulted credentials. The vulnerability affects versions prior to 14.4, and the official patch is to upgrade to version 14.4 or later. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is available at this time.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 4.2 (Medium)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N) – Exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L) – No special conditions required.
• Privileges Required: Low (PR:L) – Attacker needs valid low-privilege credentials.
• User Interaction: None (UI:N) – No user action needed.
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U) – Vulnerability does not affect other components.
• Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L) – Limited information disclosure.
• Integrity Impact: Low (I:L) – Limited modification of data.
• Availability Impact: None (A:N) – No denial of service.

Threat Level: Medium. While the CVSS score is moderate, the potential for privilege escalation in a privileged access management system is significant. An attacker gaining elevated privileges could access sensitive credentials, leading to lateral movement and deeper compromise.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability exists in the LDAP mapping configuration within PVWA. CyberArk PAM uses LDAP to synchronize user accounts and groups from an organization’s directory service (e.g., Active Directory). The mapping defines which LDAP groups correspond to which PAM roles (e.g., Vault Admin, Auditor, User).

The flaw occurs when the LDAP mapping is improperly validated. Specifically, the system may not correctly enforce the intended role assignments when processing LDAP attributes. An attacker with a low-privileged LDAP account could manipulate or exploit the mapping logic to gain a higher-privileged role, such as Vault Admin. This could be achieved by:

• Attribute Injection: Modifying LDAP attributes (if the attacker has write access to the directory) to include group memberships that map to higher privileges.
• Mapping Logic Bypass: Exploiting a flaw in the parsing of LDAP responses, where the system incorrectly interprets group memberships or fails to validate the source of the attributes.

The root cause is likely insufficient input validation or improper handling of LDAP search results, allowing an attacker to influence the role assignment process.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no specific code snippets are publicly available, the following is a conceptual representation of the vulnerability.

Vulnerable Code (Conceptual):

# Vulnerable: Directly uses LDAP attribute without validation
def get_user_role(ldap_attributes):
    group_dn = ldap_attributes.get('memberOf')
    if 'CN=AdminGroup' in group_dn:
        return 'VaultAdmin'
    else:
        return 'User'

Issue: The code trusts the memberOf attribute directly from the LDAP response without verifying the source or sanitizing the input.

Patched Code (Conceptual):

# Patched: Validates and sanitizes LDAP attributes
def get_user_role(ldap_attributes):
    group_dn = ldap_attributes.get('memberOf')
    # Validate that the group DN is from a trusted source
    if is_trusted_group(group_dn) and 'CN=AdminGroup' in group_dn:
        return 'VaultAdmin'
    else:
        return 'User'

def is_trusted_group(group_dn):
    # Check against a whitelist of allowed group DNs
    allowed_groups = ['CN=AdminGroup,OU=Groups,DC=example,DC=com']
    return group_dn in allowed_groups

Fix: The patched code validates the group DN against a whitelist, preventing arbitrary group assignments.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Prerequisites:

• Access to a CyberArk PAM Self-Hosted environment (version < 14.4).
• Valid low-privileged LDAP credentials.
• Ability to modify LDAP attributes (if exploiting attribute injection) or craft malicious LDAP responses (if exploiting parsing logic).

Exploitation Steps:

1. Reconnaissance: Identify the LDAP mapping configuration in PVWA. This may be visible in the PVWA interface under Administration -> LDAP Integration.
2. Attribute Manipulation: If the attacker has write access to the LDAP directory, modify the memberOf attribute of their user object to include a group that maps to a higher privilege (e.g., CN=AdminGroup).
3. Trigger Re-sync: Force a re-synchronization of LDAP users by triggering a manual sync or waiting for the scheduled sync.
4. Escalate Privileges: After the sync, the attacker’s user account should now have elevated privileges in PVWA, allowing access to sensitive vaults and credentials.

Alternative Attack Vector (Man-in-the-Middle):

• If LDAP traffic is not encrypted (e.g., LDAP instead of LDAPS), an attacker on the network could intercept and modify LDAP responses to inject privileged group memberships.

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor LDAP synchronization logs for unexpected changes in user group memberships.
• Alert on any user account that suddenly gains administrative privileges in PVWA.
• Monitor network traffic for LDAP queries and responses that contain unusual or unauthorized group DNs.

Prevention:

• Ensure LDAP traffic is encrypted using LDAPS (LDAP over SSL).
• Implement strict access controls on the LDAP directory to prevent unauthorized attribute modifications.
• Regularly audit LDAP mapping configurations and user role assignments.

Hunting:

• Search for PVWA logs containing LDAPSync events with unexpected role changes.
• Correlate LDAP attribute modifications with PVWA privilege escalations.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Log Entries:
  • PVWA audit logs showing a user’s role changing from User to VaultAdmin without administrative action.
  • LDAP server logs showing modifications to the memberOf attribute of a user object.
• Network Indicators:
  • Unencrypted LDAP traffic (port 389) containing suspicious group DN modifications.
• System Indicators:
  • User accounts with unexpected administrative privileges in PVWA.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2024_57967_LDAP_Escalation {
    meta:
        description = "Detects potential LDAP privilege escalation in CyberArk PVWA logs"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2024-57967"
    strings:
        $s1 = "LDAPSync" nocase
        $s2 = "RoleChanged" nocase
        $s3 = "VaultAdmin" nocase
        $s4 = "memberOf" nocase
    condition:
        all of ($s1, $s2, $s3) or ($s1 and $s4)
}

Sigma Rule

title: CyberArk PVWA LDAP Privilege Escalation
id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012
status: experimental
description: Detects potential exploitation of CVE-2024-57967
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    product: cyberark
    service: pvwa
detection:
    selection:
        EventID: 'LDAPSync'
        Details|contains: 'RoleChanged'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate administrative changes
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert tcp $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET 389 (msg:"CVE-2024-57967 Potential LDAP Privilege Escalation"; content:"|30|"; depth:1; content:"memberOf"; nocase; content:"CN=AdminGroup"; nocase; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Note: This rule detects LDAP traffic containing memberOf with CN=AdminGroup, which may indicate exploitation.

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Upgrade: Apply the official patch by upgrading to CyberArk PAM Self-Hosted version 14.4 or later.
2. Workaround: If immediate upgrade is not possible, restrict LDAP write access to only authorized administrators and enforce LDAPS for all LDAP communications.

Long-Term Mitigations:

• Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all PVWA users.
• Regularly audit LDAP mapping configurations and user role assignments.
• Monitor for anomalous LDAP synchronization events.
• Follow the principle of least privilege for all user accounts.

Valters IT Signature This report was generated by Valters IT Cyber Threat Intelligence Division.