Werk #16845: fix a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Checkmk Windows Agent

Component	Checks & agents
Title	fix a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Checkmk Windows Agent
Date	Jul 1, 2024
Level	Prominent Change
Class	Security Fix
Compatibility	Compatible - no manual interaction needed
Checkmk versions & editions	2.4.0b1 Not yet released Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME) 2.3.0p8 Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME) 2.2.0p29 Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME) 2.1.0p45 Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk MSP (CME)

This Werk fixes a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Checkmk Windows Agent.

Prior to this Werk, it was possible for authenticated users on the monitored Windows host to execute commands as administrator account that is used to run the Agent, allowing them to elevate their privileges. The reason for this issue were excessive write permissions on the ProgramData\checkmk\agent directory.

Note that you must update Checkmk as well as the agent in order to apply this fix.

This issue was found in a commissioned penetration test conducted by modzero GmbH.

Affected Versions:

• 2.3.0
• 2.2.0
• 2.1.0

Mitigations:

If updating is not possible, you can manually remove write access for non-admin users on the ProgramData\checkmk\agent folder. To do this, navigate to the folder's property settings and make sure to verify the special permissions and advanced permission settings in addition to the basic permission settings.

Vulnerability Management:

We have rated the issue with a CVSS Score of 8.8 High (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and assigned CVE-2024-28827.

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