CVE-2024-38092: Azure CycleCloud Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2024-38092 Overview

CVE-2024-38092 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in Microsoft Azure CycleCloud, a tool for orchestrating and managing High Performance Computing (HPC) environments on Azure. An authenticated attacker with low privileges on the network can exploit the flaw to gain higher privileges within the CycleCloud environment. Microsoft has classified the issue under [CWE-693: Protection Mechanism Failure]. The vulnerability affects confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the impacted CycleCloud deployment.

Critical Impact
A network-adjacent, authenticated attacker can escalate privileges in Azure CycleCloud, gaining administrative control over HPC cluster orchestration and cloud resources managed by the service.

Affected Products

Microsoft Azure CycleCloud (all versions prior to the July 2024 security update)
Azure CycleCloud deployments managing HPC clusters on Azure
CycleCloud instances exposed to authenticated internal users

Discovery Timeline

2024-07-09 - CVE-2024-38092 published to NVD
2024-07-09 - Microsoft releases security update for Azure CycleCloud
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-38092

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2024-38092 is a privilege escalation flaw in Azure CycleCloud. The vulnerability is rooted in a protection mechanism failure (CWE-693), meaning a security control intended to enforce access boundaries fails to operate as designed. An authenticated user on the network can bypass this control and perform actions restricted to higher-privileged roles.

Exploitation requires network access and valid low-privilege credentials, with no user interaction. Successful exploitation impacts confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the CycleCloud service and the HPC workloads it orchestrates. The EPSS score is 1.625% (73.9 percentile), indicating moderate observed exploit interest relative to other CVEs.

Root Cause

The root cause is a failure in the authorization enforcement logic within Azure CycleCloud. A protection mechanism that should restrict privileged operations to administrative accounts does not properly validate the caller's role. As a result, requests originating from lower-privileged authenticated users are processed with elevated permissions.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based. An attacker authenticates to the CycleCloud instance with a low-privileged account, then issues crafted requests to management endpoints. Because the flawed protection mechanism does not correctly gate privileged operations, the attacker can perform actions such as modifying cluster configurations, altering user roles, or manipulating orchestrated resources.

No public proof-of-concept exploit is currently available, and CVE-2024-38092 is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Refer to the Microsoft Security Update CVE-2024-38092 advisory for vendor-supplied technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-38092

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected role or permission changes within Azure CycleCloud administrative settings
Authenticated API calls from low-privilege users invoking administrative endpoints
New or modified HPC cluster definitions created outside of change-management windows
Anomalous access to CycleCloud configuration objects and secrets stores

Detection Strategies

Enable and review Azure CycleCloud audit logs for privileged actions correlated with non-admin accounts
Alert on Azure Activity Log entries showing role assignments or resource modifications originating from CycleCloud service principals
Baseline normal CycleCloud API usage per account and flag deviations in endpoint access patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward CycleCloud and Azure control-plane logs to a centralized SIEM for correlation
Monitor for privilege changes on CycleCloud user accounts and service principals
Track outbound activity from CycleCloud-managed clusters to identify post-exploitation lateral movement

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-38092

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Microsoft security update referenced in the MSRC advisory for CVE-2024-38092
Inventory all Azure CycleCloud instances and confirm patch status across environments
Rotate credentials and service principal secrets used by CycleCloud after patching
Review CycleCloud role assignments and remove unnecessary user access

Patch Information

Microsoft released a security update addressing CVE-2024-38092 on 2024-07-09. Administrators should follow the guidance in the Microsoft Security Update CVE-2024-38092 advisory to update affected Azure CycleCloud deployments. Confirm the fix is present in all self-hosted CycleCloud instances, as customer-managed installations do not receive automatic updates.

Workarounds

Restrict network access to the CycleCloud management interface using Azure network security groups and private endpoints
Enforce strong authentication and conditional access on all CycleCloud user accounts
Apply the principle of least privilege to CycleCloud roles until patching is complete
Isolate CycleCloud instances that cannot be patched immediately from broader tenant access

bash

# Example: restrict CycleCloud management access to a trusted subnet
az network nsg rule create \
  --resource-group cyclecloud-rg \
  --nsg-name cyclecloud-nsg \
  --name AllowAdminSubnet \
  --priority 100 \
  --source-address-prefixes 10.10.0.0/24 \
  --destination-port-ranges 443 \
  --access Allow \
  --protocol Tcp