Title: EGI-SVG Advisory [TLP:WHITE] 'HEADS-UP' on the escalation of privilege
vulnerability in Intel AMT CVE-2017-5689 [EGI-SVG-CVE-2017-5689]
Date: 2017-05-17
Affected software and risk
==========================
HEADS-UP on Intel AMT Vulnerability
Package : Intel Active Management Technology (AMT)
CVE ID : CVE-2017-5689
Escalation of privilege vulnerability in Intel® Active Management Technology
(AMT), Intel® Standard Manageability (ISM), and Intel® Small Business
Technology
Actions required/recommended
============================
Sites should upgrade the firmware as soon as available.
Affected software details
=========================
There is an escalation of privilege vulnerability in Intel® Active Management
Technology (AMT), Intel® Standard Manageability (ISM), and Intel® Small
Business Technology versions firmware versions 6.x, 7.x, 8.x 9.x, 10.x, 11.0,
11.5, and 11.6 that can allow an unprivileged attacker to gain control of the
manageability features provided by these products.
More information
================
On May 1st Intel released a security advisory [R 1] about a firmware
vulnerability in certain systems that utilise Intel® Active Management
Technology (AMT), Intel® Standard Manageability (ISM) or Intel® Small Business
Technology (SBT). The vulnerability could enable a network attacker to remotely
gain access to computers or devices that use these technologies.
Computers and devices can be exploited even if powered down. Intel published a
detection tool for the vulnerable systems [R 2]. Vendor specific details can be
found on the Intel advisory page [R 3].
To detect vulnerable machines in Linux you can use nmap:
nmap -P0 -sT -sU -p16992,16993,16994,16995,623,664 <wired IP address>
Results of this test should be either closed or filtered for all ports.
You can also use a python script for detection, see [R 4].
Intel chipsets include a "Management Engine" (ME), if AMT is used in the ME,
your system is vulnerable. You can check if the ME is enabled with lspci (See
[R 5]:
lspci | egrep '(MEI|HECI)'
For more information, read also [R 6].
Mitigations
===========
Some vendors announced the release of the new firmware only for the end of this
month. The operating system is unaware of and cannot control the Intel AMT,
hence a workaround for the firmware flaw cannot be applied in the operating
system. As a mitigation firewall rules can be applied on the edge of the site
(not on the level of operating system, as Intel AMT can intercept network
packets destined for the system already before reaching the OS).
TLP and URL
===========
** WHITE information - Unlimited distribution - see
https://go.egi.eu/tlp for distribution restrictions **
URL: https://advisories.egi.eu/Advisory-SVG-CVE-2017-5689
Minor updates may be made without re-distribution to the sites
Comments
========
Comments or questions should be sent to svg-rat at mailman.egi.eu
If you find or become aware of a vulnerability which is relevant to EGI you may
report it by e-mail to
report-vulnerability at egi.eu
the EGI Software Vulnerability Group will take a look.
References
==========
[R 1] https://newsroom.intel.com/news/important-security-information-intel-manageability-firmware/
[R 2] https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26755
[R 3] https://www.ssh.com/vulnerability/intel-amt/
[R 4] https://github.com/CerberusSecurity/CVE-2017-5689
[R 5] https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3019961
[R 6] https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5689
Credit
======
SVG was alerted to this vulnerability by Barbara Krasovec and Mischa Salle.
Timeline
========
Yyyy-mm-dd [CVE-2017-5689]
2017-05-12 SVG alerted to this issue.
2017-05-12 Investigation of vulnerability and relevance to EGI carried out
2017-01-13 EGI SVG Risk Assessment - agreed varies depending on the hardware
2017-05-15 Agreed to send advisory
2017-05-17 Advisory/Alert sent to sites
Context
=======
This advisory has been prepared as part of the effort to fulfil EGI SVG's
purpose "To minimize the risk to the EGI infrastructure arising from software
vulnerabilities"
The risk is that assessed by the group, according to the EGI SVG issue handling
procedure [R 5] in the context of how the software is used in the EGI
infrastructure.
It is the opinion of the group, we do not guarantee it to be correct. The risk
may also be higher or lower in other deployments depending on how the software
is used.
Others may re-use this information provided they:-
1) Respect the provided TLP classification
2) Credit the EGI https://www.egi.eu/ Software Vulnerability Group