Actively exploited vulnerability
Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway: authentication bypass flaw under attack
CVE-2022-27518 · Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
What is affected
Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.
Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway, when configured with SAML SP or IdP configuration, contain an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows an attacker to execute code as administrator.
What an attacker can do
This is a authentication bypass flaw. It lets an attacker get in without a valid username and password and act as a legitimate user, often as an administrator.
- How it is reached
- Over the internet or network
- Access the attacker needs
- No account needed
- Does the victim have to do something?
- No, works without the victim doing anything
What to do
- At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
- If you administer Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
- If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vendor advisories and fixes
- citrix.comwww.citrix.com/blogs/2022/12/13/critical-security-update-now-available-for-citrix-adc-citr
How urgent is it
CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on December 13, 2022, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by January 3, 2023, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.
The EPSS model estimates a 6.7% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 94% of all scored vulnerabilities.
Its CVSS severity score is 9.8 out of 10 (critical), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.
Technical description
Unauthenticated remote arbitrary code execution