CVE-2014-0644
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 · uneditedEMC Cloud Tiering Appliance (CTA) 10 through SP1 allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files via an api/login request containing an XML external entity declaration in conjunction with an entity reference, related to an XML External Entity (XXE) issue, as demonstrated by reading the /etc/shadow file.
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 confidenceEMC Cloud Tiering Appliance (CTA) versions 10 through SP1 contains an XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in the api/login endpoint. Attackers can inject malicious XXE declarations into XML requests to cause the parser to read and return arbitrary files from the server filesystem, as demonstrated by reading /etc/shadow.
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= 10.0all versionsCVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify EMC CTA versionAccess the administrative interface or check system information to determine the installed version of EMC Cloud Tiering Appliance. Look for version display in the web UI or check system configuration files.Affected if The installed version is 10.0 through SP1, or if the version cannot be determined but the product is EMC CTA (since 'all versions' are listed as affected).
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Verify api/login endpoint is accessibleConfirm the api/login endpoint is exposed by attempting to access it via HTTP/HTTPS at the typical path: /api/login or the application's API base path with /login endpoint.Affected if The api/login endpoint is reachable and accepts XML-based authentication requests.
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Test for XXE vulnerability in login endpointSend a crafted XML POST request to the api/login endpoint containing a DOCTYPE declaration with an external entity reference (for example: <!DOCTYPE foo [<!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "file:///etc/passwd">]>) and observe if the response includes content from the referenced file.Affected if The server processes the XXE payload and returns content from arbitrary filesystem files in the response, indicating the XML parser allows external entity processing.
If the EMC Cloud Tiering Appliance version is 10.0 through SP1 (or cannot be determined), and the api/login endpoint is accessible and processes XML without disabling external entities, the environment is affected by this XXE vulnerability.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataDisable external entity processing in the XML parser handling the api/login endpoint, implement input validation to reject XML containing DOCTYPE declarations, or upgrade to a patched version if available.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-0644 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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