# CVE-2019-6601: Privilege escalation in BIG-IP (AAM)

> The AAM wamd process fails to drop group permissions, allowing local attackers to escalate privileges on F5 BIG-IP devices.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 13 Mar 2019
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-frpm-gc6w-7xpf

## What is CVE-2019-6601?

CVE-2019-6601 is a medium-severity vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, published on 13 Mar 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In BIG-IP 13.0.0, 12.1.0-12.1.3.7, 11.6.1-11.6.3.2, or 11.5.1-11.5.8, the Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) wamd process used in processing of images and PDFs fails to drop group permissions when executing helper scripts.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-6601?

It affects 1 product.


Products: F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-6601?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-6601 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-6601 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-6601 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager

- [CVE-2018-15331](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15331/): Privilege escalation in BIG-IP (AAM) (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-6160](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6160/): Denial of service in BIG-IP AAM, PEM (medium 5.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-6601 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-6601 is a medium-severity vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, published on 13 Mar 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-6601 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-6601/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-6601/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-6601
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-6601
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-6601

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-6601/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.