Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Moxa Cellular and Secure Routers
CVE-2024-9138

Currently unrated

Key Information:

Vendor: Moxa
Vendor: CVE Published:; 3 January 2025

Badges

📈 Score: 1,020📰 News Worthy

What is CVE-2024-9138?

CVE-2024-9138 is a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability that affects Moxa's cellular and secure routers, as well as their network security appliances. These products are designed to provide robust communication and security solutions for industrial automation and networking environments. The vulnerability is characterized by the presence of hard-coded credentials, which can be exploited by an authenticated user to escalate privileges. This could lead to unauthorized root-level access, severely compromising the security of an organization’s network infrastructure.

Technical Details

The vulnerability stems from the insecure implementation of authentication mechanisms within Moxa's devices. Hard-coded credentials mean that even users with basic authentication could manipulate their access level, gaining elevated permissions without proper authorization. This creates a critical pathway for possible attacks, where exploited authenticated accounts can alter system configurations or execute commands with root privileges, significantly undermining the integrity of the device.

Potential impact of CVE-2024-9138

Unauthorized System Control: A successful exploitation can allow attackers to gain full control over affected routers and network security appliances, enabling them to manipulate configurations and potentially disable critical security features.
Data Breach Risks: With root access, an attacker could access sensitive data traversing through the affected systems, leading to potential leaks or theft of confidential information, which could have legal and financial repercussions for the organization.
Network Compromise: The privilege escalation could serve as an entry point for further attacks, potentially allowing adversaries to pivot to other connected devices or systems within the organization’s network, increasing the risk of widespread compromise.

News Articles

BankInfoSecurity

CVE-2024-9138 CVE-2024-9140

Moxa Warns of Critical Industrial Router Vulnerabilities

Taiwanese industrial computing firm Moxa Technologies is warning customers about two high-severity vulnerabilities affecting its routers and network appliances,

10 hours ago