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Aruba Mobility ControllerHardware / appliance · Arubanetworks

CVE-2008-7023

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2009-08-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Aruba Mobility Controller running ArubaOS 3.3.1.16, and possibly other versions, installs the same default X.509 certificate for all installations, which allows remote attackers to bypass authentication. NOTE: this is only a vulnerability when the administrator does not follow recommendations in the product's security documentation.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Aruba Mobility Controller running ArubaOS 3.3.1.16 ships with a hardcoded default X.509 certificate identical across all installations. Attackers who obtain this certificate can impersonate legitimate servers and bypass authentication mechanisms.

MitigationReplace the default certificate with a unique, properly generated certificate unique to each installation, following the product security documentation. Verify that default credentials and certificates are changed during deployment.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Aruba Mobility ControllerHardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
ArubaosOperating system
Affected:= 3.3.1.16

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify device model and OS version
    Log into the Aruba Mobility Controller CLI and execute 'show version' to display the device model and ArubaOS version number
    Affected if The device is an Aruba Mobility Controller running ArubaOS version 3.3.1.16
  2. Locate the installed X.509 certificate
    Execute 'show web-server cert' or 'show ip ssl cert' to display the currently configured SSL certificate details including serial number, subject, and fingerprint
    Affected if A certificate is configured on the device (default applies to all)
  3. Verify certificate matches known default
    Compare the displayed certificate fingerprint or serial number against the known hardcoded default certificate associated with this CVE. If the fingerprint matches the published default value, the device is vulnerable
    Affected if The certificate fingerprint matches the known hardcoded default certificate from CVE-2008-7023

The device is affected if it is an Aruba Mobility Controller running ArubaOS 3.3.1.16 and the installed X.509 certificate matches the hardcoded default certificate identical across all installations.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Replace the default certificate with a unique, properly generated certificate unique to each installation, following the product security documentation. Verify that default credentials and certificates are changed during deployment.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence
  1. Replace the default X.509 certificate with a unique, properly generated certificate specific to the installation
  2. Consult the Aruba Mobility Controller security documentation for certificate replacement procedures
  3. Generate a new private key and certificate signing request (CSR) specific to this device
  4. Have the CSR signed by a trusted Certificate Authority or use an internal CA
  5. Install the new unique certificate on the Aruba Mobility Controller
  6. Verify that the default/sample certificates have been removed from the device
  7. Ensure the new certificate's private key is stored securely and not accessible to unauthorized parties

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Aruba Mobility Controller Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-7023 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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