CVE-2016-4326

Vulnerability

The Chef Manage add-on (formerly opscode-manage) before version 1.12.0 for Chef contains a deserialization vulnerability (CWE-502) in how it handles cookie data. An unauthenticated attacker can provide specially crafted serialized data in a cookie, which is then deserialized without proper validation, leading to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the web server [1].

Exploitation

An attacker with network access to the Chef Manage web interface can exploit this vulnerability without authentication. By sending a crafted HTTP request containing malicious serialized data in a cookie, the attacker triggers insecure deserialization. No user interaction or additional privileges are required [1].

Impact

Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system with the privileges of the web server. This typically results in complete compromise of the Chef Manage application and potentially the underlying host, impacting confidentiality, integrity, and availability [1].

Mitigation

The vulnerability is fixed in Chef Manage version 1.12.0 and later. Users are advised to upgrade to the latest release. No workarounds are documented [1].