CVE-2025-23391: Incorrect Privilege Assignment in SUSE Rancher Potentially Leading to System Compromise

Overview

CVE-2025-23391 is a critical cybersecurity vulnerability that exists in SUSE Rancher, a popular open-source software for managing Kubernetes at scale. This vulnerability can allow Restricted Administrators to escalate their privileges by changing the passwords of Administrators and subsequently taking over their accounts. This vulnerability is significant as it could potentially lead to unauthorized system control, compromising system integrity and confidentiality and possibly resulting in data leakage. Given the widespread use of SUSE Rancher in managing applications in large scale cloud-native environments, it is crucial that administrators and users are aware of this vulnerability and apply the necessary mitigations.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-23391
Severity: Critical (9.1 CVSS Severity Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low (Restricted Administrator)
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

SUSE Rancher | 2.8.0 to 2.8.14
SUSE Rancher | 2.9.0 to 2.9.8
SUSE Rancher | 2.10.0 to 2.10.4

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of a flaw in the privilege assignment mechanism within SUSE Rancher. A Restricted Administrator, who typically would not have the authority to alter Administrator accounts, is able to change the passwords of these privileged accounts due to the vulnerability. Once the password has been changed, the Restricted Administrator can take over the Administrator account, therefore gaining unauthorized access to system resources beyond their original scope of control.

Conceptual Example Code

The actual exploitation of this vulnerability would be dependent on the specific configuration and usage of the system. However, conceptually, the attack might involve an HTTP POST request to the endpoint responsible for password changes. For example:

POST /api/v1/users/{admin_id}/password HTTP/1.1
Host: rancher.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer {restricted_admin_token}
{
"newPassword": "malicious_password"
}

In this conceptual example, `{admin_id}` would be replaced with the ID of the targeted Administrator account, and `{restricted_admin_token}` would be replaced with a valid session token of the Restricted Administrator. The `newPassword` field would be filled with the attacker’s chosen password.
This is purely an illustrative example; actual exploitation may differ based on the system’s setup and configuration.