dbcve.org
Enterprise LinuxOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2017-15104

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2017-12-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
An access flaw was found in Heketi 5, where the heketi.json configuration file was world readable. An attacker having local access to the Heketi server could read plain-text passwords from the heketi.json 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 confidence

In Heketi 5, the heketi.json configuration file was created with world-readable permissions (e.g., 644), allowing any local user on the system to read its contents. This configuration file stored administrative passwords in plain text, enabling a local attacker to obtain credentials for further attack or lateral movement.

MitigationChange ownership of heketi.json to the heketi service account and set permissions to 600 (owner read/write only), then restart the Heketi service to verify functionality. Consider migrating to a more secure credential storage mechanism as a long-term improvement.

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
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
HeketiApplication
Affected:= 5.0.0

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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. Locate the heketi.json configuration file
    Find all instances of heketi.json on the system using: find / -name heketi.json 2>/dev/null. Note the path(s) found.
    Affected if heketi.json exists on the system and contains plain text administrative passwords or credentials
  2. Check file permissions on heketi.json
    Run: ls -la /path/to/heketi.json (replace with actual path from previous step). Look at the permission bits in the first column.
    Affected if Permissions show any permissions for 'others' (for example, r--, -w-, r-x, rw-, r--, r-x, or any combination containing 'r' or 'w' or 'x' in the last three characters)
  3. Verify if file is world-readable
    Run: stat -c '%a' /path/to/heketi.json. The numeric mode will be 4 digits. If the last digit is non-zero, or if using symbolic mode check if 'others' have read (r) permission.
    Affected if The numeric permission ends in a digit greater than 0 (e.g., 644, 664, 755) indicating world-readable access
  4. Confirm plain text passwords in configuration
    Examine the file contents: cat /path/to/heketi.json | grep -i 'password'. Do not display the actual passwords, just note if any password fields exist.
    Affected if The file contains password fields with values (any readable text after a colon in a password key)
  5. Check installed Heketi version
    Run: heketi --version or check the package version: rpm -q heketi or dpkg -l heketi depending on the Linux distribution.
    Affected if The installed version is 5.0.0 or if the package indicates it is the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 heketi package

You are affected if heketi.json exists on your system, has world-readable permissions (mode ending in a non-zero digit), and contains plain text administrative passwords, especially when running Heketi version 5.0.0 on RHEL 7.0.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Change ownership of heketi.json to the heketi service account and set permissions to 600 (owner read/write only), then restart the Heketi service to verify functionality. Consider migrating to a more secure credential storage mechanism as a long-term improvement.

Fix this in Enterprise Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-15104 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2017-15104 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data