CVE-2023-6218: MOVEit Transfer Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2023-6218 Overview

A privilege escalation vulnerability has been identified in Progress MOVEit Transfer, a widely-used managed file transfer solution. This security flaw allows group administrators to improperly elevate the permissions of group members to organization administrator level, potentially granting unauthorized access to critical system functions and sensitive data across the entire organization.

Critical Impact

Group administrators can escalate group member privileges to organization administrator role, potentially compromising the entire MOVEit Transfer deployment and all managed data transfers.

Affected Products

• Progress MOVEit Transfer versions before 2022.0.9 (14.0.9)
• Progress MOVEit Transfer versions before 2022.1.10 (14.1.10)
• Progress MOVEit Transfer versions before 2023.0.7 (15.0.7)

Discovery Timeline

• 2023-11-29 - CVE CVE-2023-6218 published to NVD
• 2024-11-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2023-6218

Vulnerability Analysis

This privilege escalation vulnerability (CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management) exists within the group administration functionality of Progress MOVEit Transfer. The flaw stems from inadequate validation of privilege assignment operations, allowing group administrators to bypass intended access control boundaries.

When a group administrator modifies user permissions within their administrative scope, the application fails to properly enforce role hierarchy restrictions. This allows the group administrator to assign organization-level administrative privileges to users, even though such assignments should be restricted to organization administrators only.

The vulnerability is exploitable over the network and requires high-level privileges (group administrator access) to execute. However, no user interaction is required once an attacker has obtained group administrator credentials, making this a concerning attack path for insider threats or compromised administrator accounts.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2023-6218 is improper privilege management (CWE-269) in the user role assignment mechanism. The application does not adequately verify that the requesting user has sufficient authority to grant organization administrator privileges. The group administrator role was incorrectly permitted to modify user roles beyond its intended scope, creating a vertical privilege escalation path.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for this vulnerability involves a network-based exploitation path where an authenticated group administrator leverages the permission assignment functionality:

1. An attacker with group administrator credentials accesses the MOVEit Transfer administrative interface
2. The attacker navigates to user management functions for their assigned group
3. Using the role assignment feature, the attacker modifies a group member's role
4. Due to insufficient validation, the attacker can assign organization administrator privileges
5. The escalated user now has full administrative control over the entire MOVEit Transfer deployment

This attack requires an authenticated session with group administrator privileges but does not require any interaction from the target user or other administrators. The impact includes potential full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all data managed by the affected MOVEit Transfer instance.

Detection Methods for CVE-2023-6218

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected changes to user role assignments, particularly elevations to organization administrator level
• Audit log entries showing group administrators modifying permissions beyond their normal scope
• New organization administrator accounts that were previously group members
• Unusual administrative actions performed by recently-elevated user accounts

Detection Strategies

• Implement alerting on user role changes within MOVEit Transfer, especially escalations to administrative roles
• Monitor audit logs for group administrators performing permission modifications outside their typical patterns
• Deploy SIEM rules to correlate privilege escalation events with subsequent administrative actions
• Review organization administrator account creation and modification events regularly

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive audit logging within MOVEit Transfer for all administrative actions
• Configure real-time alerts for any organization administrator role assignments
• Establish baseline behavior patterns for group administrators to detect anomalous privilege modifications
• Integrate MOVEit Transfer logs with centralized security monitoring solutions

How to Mitigate CVE-2023-6218

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Progress MOVEit Transfer to version 2022.0.9 (14.0.9), 2022.1.10 (14.1.10), or 2023.0.7 (15.0.7) or later immediately
• Audit all organization administrator accounts to identify any unauthorized elevations
• Review recent administrative actions for signs of exploitation
• Restrict network access to MOVEit Transfer administrative interfaces where possible

Patch Information

Progress Software has released security patches addressing this vulnerability in the November 2023 Service Pack. Organizations should upgrade to the following minimum versions:

• MOVEit Transfer 2022.0.9 (14.0.9) for the 2022.0.x branch
• MOVEit Transfer 2022.1.10 (14.1.10) for the 2022.1.x branch
• MOVEit Transfer 2023.0.7 (15.0.7) for the 2023.0.x branch

Detailed patch information and installation instructions are available in the Progress MOVEit Transfer Service Pack November 2023 advisory.

Workarounds

• Limit the number of group administrator accounts to only those strictly necessary
• Implement network segmentation to restrict access to MOVEit Transfer administrative interfaces
• Enable multi-factor authentication for all administrative accounts
• Conduct regular reviews of user privileges and role assignments to detect unauthorized changes

# Configuration example - Review current organization administrators
# Access MOVEit Transfer admin console and export user report
# Verify all organization administrators are authorized
# Remove any unauthorized elevated accounts
# Enable audit logging for role changes if not already active