Admin escalation via operator session reuse
Published Oct 25, 2022 · Updated May 9, 2025
Privilege escalation in Brocade Fabric OS before 9.1.1, 9.0.1e, or 8.2.3c allows remote authenticated users to create admin users via Webtools. The Webtools user-addition request accepts an intercepted operator authorization header, allowing a low-privilege role to reuse that session identity and assign administrator privileges. The attacker must already authenticate to the management interface and obtain the operator header; the impact is unauthorized account creation and full confidentiality and integrity loss on the switch.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in Brocade Fabric OS before 9.1.1, 9.0.1e, or 8.2.3c allows remote authenticated users to create admin users via Webtools. The Webtools user-addition request accepts an intercepted operator authorization header, allowing a low-privilege role to reuse that session identity and assign administrator privileges. The attacker must already authenticate to the management interface and obtain the operator header; the impact is unauthorized account creation and full confidentiality and integrity loss on the switch.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-28169
- Published
- Oct 25, 2022
- Updated
- May 9, 2025
- Vendor
- Brocade Communications Systems
- Product
- Brocade Fabric OS
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 25, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 9, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=Brocade Fabric OS versions before Brocade Fabric OS versions v9.1.1, v9.0.1e, and v8.2.3c
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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