Detection: F5 TMUI Authentication Bypass

Updated Date: 2024-09-30 ID: 88bf127c-613e-4579-99e4-c4d4b02f3840 Author: Michael Haag, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects attempts to exploit the CVE-2023-46747 vulnerability, an authentication bypass flaw in F5 BIG-IP's Configuration utility (TMUI). It identifies this activity by monitoring for specific URI paths such as "/mgmt/tm/auth/user/" with the PATCH method and a 200 status code. This behavior is significant for a SOC as it indicates potential unauthorized access attempts, leading to remote code execution. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access, execute arbitrary code, steal data, disrupt systems, or conduct further malicious activities within the network.

1
2| tstats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Web where Web.url IN ("*/mgmt/tm/auth/user/*") Web.http_method=PATCH Web.status=200 by Web.http_user_agent, Web.status Web.http_method, Web.url, Web.url_length, Web.src, Web.dest, sourcetype 
3| `drop_dm_object_name("Web")` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
6| `f5_tmui_authentication_bypass_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
Suricata N/A 'suricata' 'suricata'

Macros Used

Name Value
security_content_ctime convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)
f5_tmui_authentication_bypass_filter search *
f5_tmui_authentication_bypass_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK
+ Kill Chain Phases
+ NIST
+ CIS
- Threat Actors
ID Technique Tactic
NistCategory.DE_CM
Cis18Value.CIS_10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting Value
Disabled true
Cron Schedule 0 * * * *
Earliest Time -70m@m
Latest Time -10m@m
Schedule Window auto
Creates Notable Yes
Rule Title %name%
Rule Description %description%
Notable Event Fields user, dest
Creates Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on Web traffic that include fields relevant for traffic into the Web datamodel.

Known False Positives

False positives should be limited to as this is strict to active exploitation. Reduce noise by filtering to F5 devices with TMUI enabled or filter data as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
Potential CVE-2023-46747 F5 TMUI Authentication Bypass may be occurring against $dest$ from $src$. 90 100 90
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation ✅ Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit ✅ Passing Dataset suricata suricata
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset suricata suricata

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 3