CVE-2018-9025

Vulnerability

CVE-2018-9025 is an input validation vulnerability in the login page of CA Privileged Access Manager (PAM) version 2.x [1]. The login page does not properly sanitize user-supplied input before writing it to log files, enabling an attacker to inject arbitrary content into those logs.

Exploitation

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability remotely without requiring authentication [1]. By sending specially crafted input to the login page, the attacker can inject arbitrary log entries. No special network position or user interaction is needed beyond the ability to reach the PAM login interface.

Impact

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to poison log files, potentially masking malicious activity or causing log-based monitoring systems to misinterpret events [1]. The impact is rated low by the vendor, as it does not directly lead to code execution or privilege escalation, but it can undermine the integrity of audit trails.

Mitigation

CA Technologies released a security notice (CA20180614-01) on June 14, 2018, addressing this vulnerability [1]. Administrators should apply the latest security update from the vendor. No workaround is documented; upgrading to the fixed version is the recommended mitigation.