# CVE-2024-42018: Misconfiguration in n/a

> Improper iptables configuration in cloudinit allows unprivileged users to access sensitive management node credentials after a reboot.

- **Severity:** High 7.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 11 Oct 2024
- **Updated:** 6 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mh6q-7483-rvj7

## What is CVE-2024-42018?

CVE-2024-42018 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 11 Oct 2024. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Atos Eviden SMC xScale before 1.6.6. During initialization of nodes, some configuration parameters are retrieved from management nodes. These parameters embed credentials whose integrity and confidentiality may be important to the security of the HPC configuration. Because these parameters are needed for initialization, there is no available mechanism to ensure access control on the management node, and a mitigation measure is normally put in place to prevent access to unprivileged users. It was discovered that this mitigation measure does not survive a reboot of diskful nodes. (Diskless nodes are not at risk.) The mistake lies in the cloudinit configuration: the iptables configuration should have been in the bootcmd instead of the runcmd section.

Weakness: CWE-922 (Insecure Storage of Sensitive Information)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-42018?


## How do I fix CVE-2024-42018?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-42018 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-42018 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-42018 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-42018 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-42018 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 11 Oct 2024. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-42018 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2024-42018/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42018/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-42018
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-42018
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-42018

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42018/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.