Various risks with the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) have been identified and documented in the IT security community. Because the IMM and IMM2 provide IPMI access by default, a subset of these identified risks are applicable to IBM servers that include the IMM and IMM2.
Abstract
Various risks with the Intelligent Platform Management Interface
(IPMI) have been identified and documented in the IT security
community. Because the IMM and IMM2 provide IPMI access by default,
a subset of these identified risks are applicable to IBM servers
that include the IMM and IMM2.
Content
Vulnerability Details:
CVE ID: CVE-2013-4038
Description:
For IMM (but not IMM2), the passwords for user accounts are stored
in clear text in the IMM file system. Users do not have access to
the root shell of the IMM’s operating system, however if a
user was able to break into the IMM operating system, he would have
visibility to the user passwords. With access to the account
information a malicious user could change the account credentials
of other users or perform actions under the guise of another
user.
CVSS Base Score: 4
CVSS Temporal Score: See http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/86174
for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N)
CVE ID: CVE-2013-4037
Description:
The RAKP protocol, which is specified by the IPMI
standard for authentication, has flaws. Although the IMMs do not
allow the use of null passwords, a hacker could reverse engineer
the RAKP transactions to determine a password. The authentication
process for IPMI requires the management controller to send a hash
of the requested user's password to the client, prior to the client
authenticating. This process is a key part of the IPMI
specification. The password hash can broken using an offline brute
force or dictionary attack.
CVSS Base Score: 4.3
CVSS Temporal Score: See http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/86173
for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N)
CVE ID: CVE-2013-4031
Description:
The IMM and IMM2 are preconfigured with one IPMI user account,
which has the same default login name and password on all affected
systems. If a malicious user gains access to the IPMI interface
using this preconfigured account, he/she would be able to power off
or on, or reboot the host server, and to create or change user
accounts possibly preventing legitimate users from accessing the
IMMs.
Additionally, if a user fails to change the default user name and
password on each of the systems that he deploys, the user would
have the same login information for each of the IMMs on those
systems.
CVSS Base Score: 10
CVSS Temporal Score: See http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/86172
for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C)
Affected products and versions
All IBM servers that include and IMM or IMM2, including but not
limited to:
- BladeCenter HS22
- BladeCenter HS22V
- BladeCenter HS23
- BladeCenter HS23E
- BladeCenter HX5
- Flex System x220 Compute Node
- Flex System x240 Compute Node
- Flex System x440 Compute Node
- System x iDataPlex dx360 M2 server
- System x iDataPlex dx360 M3
- System x iDataPlex dx360 M4
- System x3100 M4
- System x3200 M3
- System x3250 M3
- System x3250 M4
- System x3400 M2
- System x3400 M3
- System x3500 M2
- System x3500 M3
- System x3500 M4
- System x3530 M4
- System x3550 M2
- System x3550 M3
- System x3550 M4
- System x3620 M3
- System x3630 M3
- System x3630 M4
- System x3650 M2
- System x3650 M3
- System x3650 M4
- System x3690 X5
- System x3750 M4
- System x3850 X5
- System x3950 X5
Remediation:
For CVE-2013-4038, in addition to updating IMM1 devices to
firmware version 1.42 (YUOOG2C) or newer, the following
configuration change is required:
- Through the IMM web page interface, on the IMM Security page,
Click “Enable Encryption” button in the “Enable
Data Encryption” section.
Additionally, see the configuration options and best practices
below:
- Change the preconfigured user name and
password when the server is deployed. Doing this will prevent
unauthorized users from gaining access to the IMMs through the
preconfigured user account.
- If a user is not managing a server using
IPMI, the IMMs can be configured to disallow IPMI network access
from the user accounts. This can be accomplished using the ipmitool
utility or a similar utility for managing and configuring IPMI
management controllers. Here is an example of an ipmitool command
to disable the network access for an IPMI user:
ipmitool channel setaccess 1 #user_slot# privilege=15
Replace #user_slot# in the above command with the actual slot
number (1 through 12) and repeat for each IMM/IMM2 user that has
been configured. The example above details the command when it is
run directly on the server itself. If the ipmitool command is run
remotely over the network, or if a different utility is used, the
command will be different. Consult the documentation for the
utility that you are using to determine the correct command syntax.
Disallowing IPMI network access will remove the ability to use the
weakness present in the IPMI RAKP protocol to discover user account
credentials.
- Use strong passwords, at least 16
characters long with a mixture of upper and lowercase letters,
numbers, and special characters. By using longer, more complex
passwords it makes it more difficult for malicious users to
discover valid user credentials.
- Keep the management network separate from
the public network. Keeping the management network separate lessens
security exposures by reducing the number of individuals who can
access the IMMs.
Workaround(s) & Mitigation(s):
None
References:
Related Information:
IBM
Secure Engineering Web Portal
IBM Product Security
Incident Response Blog
Acknowledgement
None
Change History
1 August 2013: Original Copy Published
14 January 2014: Updated with IMM1 version fixing CVE-2013-4038
*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and
will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can
evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by
accessing the links in the Reference section of this Flash.
Note: According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security
Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an
"industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity
and help to determine urgency and priority of response." IBM
PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE
IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY.
References
On
*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.
BladeCenter:Operating system independent / None
System x:Operating system independent / None
PureFlex System and Flex System:Operating system independent / None
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