How does this vulnerability affect compliance with common standards and regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA)?:

The vulnerability allows an attacker to exfiltrate all records from all collections in the database, including sensitive administrative credentials and user data, due to improper neutralization of special elements in data query logic (NoSQL Injection).

This high confidentiality impact can lead to unauthorized disclosure of personal and sensitive information, which may violate data protection regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA that require safeguarding personal data against unauthorized access.

Since the attack enables full read access to sensitive data without proper authorization, affected organizations could face compliance issues related to data confidentiality, breach notification requirements, and potential legal and financial penalties.

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Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability exists in Cockpit-HQ Cockpit versions up to 2.13.5, specifically in an unknown functionality of the Asset Handler/Aggregate Handler component. It involves improper neutralization of special elements in data query logic, which means that the system does not correctly handle certain special characters or elements in queries. This flaw can be exploited remotely, allowing an attacker to manipulate data queries in a way that was not intended.

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How can this vulnerability impact me? :

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely to manipulate data queries improperly. This could lead to unauthorized access or modification of data, potentially compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system. Given the CVSS scores, the impact includes partial loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

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How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?

This vulnerability can be detected by monitoring for unusual or crafted requests targeting the Cockpit CMS endpoints that handle asset filters or aggregation pipelines, specifically the /assets/assets and /api/content/aggregate/{model} endpoints.

Detection involves looking for requests containing MongoDB operators such as $ne, $regex, $lookup, or $unionWith within JSON payloads or query parameters, which are indicators of NoSQL injection attempts.

Suggested commands to detect exploitation attempts include using network traffic inspection tools like tcpdump or Wireshark to capture HTTP requests to these endpoints, and searching logs or captured data for suspicious payloads.

• Use grep or similar tools on web server logs to find requests containing MongoDB operators, e.g.: grep -E '\$ne|\$regex|\$lookup|\$unionWith' /var/log/nginx/access.log
• Use curl or similar tools to test the endpoints with crafted payloads to see if the system responds abnormally, e.g.: curl -X POST -d '{"filter":{"_cby":{"$regex":"^a"}}}' https://target/api/assets/assets
• Monitor API requests for aggregation pipeline parameters containing JSON with $lookup or other aggregation operators.

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What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?

Immediate mitigation steps include implementing input sanitization to recursively remove all keys starting with '$' from user inputs before they are passed to database queries.

Restrict the use of aggregation pipeline stages such as $lookup, $unionWith, $graphLookup, $out, and $merge for all users except superadmins to prevent unauthorized cross-collection data access.

Replace the current raw MongoDB JSON filters with a safe, restricted domain-specific language (DSL) for filtering to prevent injection of malicious operators.

Additionally, monitor and restrict API keys and user permissions to limit access to assets/read or content/read permissions only to trusted users.

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