Authentication Bypass in NetMan 204 Admin Pages

Executive Summary

The vulnerability in NetMan 204 involves missing authentication on its administrative pages and command endpoints. This means a remote attacker can access sensitive administrative pages such as administration.html, administration-commands.html, and configuration.html without needing to log in.

Through this flaw, the attacker can view sensitive information like LDAP configuration and active user details. Additionally, the attacker can execute privileged UPS control commands such as shutdown, reboot, switch-on-bypass, and battery test without supplying any credentials.

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function) and has a high severity rating (CVSS v3.1 score of 9.8).

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability can be detected by attempting to access the administrative pages of NetMan 204 devices without authentication. Specifically, you can try to request pages such as administration.html, administration-commands.html, and configuration.html directly from the device's IP address.

Additionally, using network scanning tools or web request interceptors like Burp Suite, you can send HTTP requests to these endpoints and observe if sensitive information is disclosed or if privileged commands (e.g., shutdown, reboot) can be invoked without credentials.

For example, commands or techniques include:

• Using curl or wget to request administrative pages: curl http://<device-ip>/administration.html
• Using Burp Suite to intercept and modify requests to administrative command endpoints to check if commands like reboot or shutdown execute without authentication.
• Using Shodan with specific dorks to locate vulnerable NetMan 204 devices on the internet.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to gain unauthorized access to sensitive administrative information and control critical UPS functions.

• Disclosure of sensitive information such as LDAP configuration and active user details.
• Execution of privileged commands including shutdown, reboot, switch-on-bypass, and battery test on the UPS device.

Such unauthorized control can lead to disruption of UPS operations, potentially causing downtime or damage to connected equipment.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Compliance Impact

The vulnerability in NetMan 204 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to access sensitive administrative pages and information, including LDAP configuration and active user details, and to execute privileged commands without credentials.

This exposure of sensitive information and unauthorized control could lead to violations of data protection regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA, which require strict access controls and protection of personal and sensitive data.

Failure to enforce authentication on critical administrative functions undermines compliance with these standards by increasing the risk of unauthorized data disclosure and system manipulation.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Mitigation Strategies

Immediate mitigation steps include restricting network access to the NetMan 204 device administrative interfaces to trusted users only, such as by placing the device behind a firewall or VPN.

Since the vulnerability involves missing authentication, ensure that administrative pages and command endpoints are not accessible from untrusted networks.

If possible, disable or restrict access to the vulnerable administrative pages and commands until a patch or firmware update is available.

Monitor network traffic for unauthorized access attempts to the administrative URLs and commands.

Consult the vendor's resources for any available firmware updates or patches that address this authentication bypass vulnerability.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0