Privilege escalation lets delegated DB admins back up out-of-scope forests in MarkLogic Server
AI analysis
Progress MarkLogic Server contains an improper-privilege-management flaw (CWE-269) in which a remote attacker holding delegated database-administrator privileges can perform backup or restore operations on forests outside the database they are authorized to manage. Because backup and restore operations touch security-critical data, this could allow unauthorized access to or modification of sensitive information stored in other databases on the same cluster. The flaw affects MarkLogic Server 12.x releases before 12.1.0 and 11.x releases before 11.3.7, and carries a critical CVSS 3.1 score of 9.6. It requires an authenticated account with delegated database-administrator rights, so it is primarily a risk in multi-tenant or delegated-administration deployments. No public proof of concept or known in-the-wild exploitation has been reported, and it is not on the CISA KEV list.
What to do: Upgrade to MarkLogic Server 12.1.0 or later (12.x branch) or 11.3.7 or later (11.x branch) as soon as practical. In the interim, review which accounts hold delegated database-administrator privileges and revoke or restrict those roles, and audit backup/restore logs for operations on forests outside expected database scopes.
Affected
| Progress MarkLogic Server | 12.x before 12.1.0 |
| Progress MarkLogic Server | 11.x before 11.3.7 |
Estimated exposure
—No basis for an estimate.
Order-of-magnitude estimate by the model from install counts, market share and public scan data it knows; verify before quoting.
Description
Progress MarkLogic Server 12.x releases before 12.1.0 and 11.x releases before 11.3.7 allow a remote attacker with delegated database-administrator privileges to perform backup or restore operations on forests outside the authorized database scope, which could result in unauthorized access to or modification of security-critical data.