CVE-2017-4959
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in Pivotal PCF Elastic Runtime 1.8.x versions prior to 1.8.29 and 1.9.x versions prior to 1.9.7. Pivotal Cloud Foundry deployments using the Pivotal Account application are vulnerable to a flaw which allows an authorized user to take over the account of another user, causing account lockout and potential escalation of privileges.
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 confidenceAccount takeover vulnerability in Pivotal Cloud Foundry's Pivotal Account application within Elastic Runtime. An authenticated user can hijack another user's account, causing account lockout for the victim and allowing the attacker to escalate privileges by impersonating the compromised account.
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= 1.8.0= 1.8.1= 1.8.2= 1.8.3= 1.8.4= 1.8.5= 1.8.6= 1.8.7= 1.8.8= 1.8.9= 1.8.10= 1.8.11CVSS 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
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Elastic Runtime versionRun 'cf env' or check the Pivotal Ops Manager dashboard under Elastic Runtime product tile to retrieve the installed version numberAffected if The installed version is any of: 1.8.0, 1.8.1, 1.8.2, 1.8.3, 1.8.4, 1.8.5, 1.8.6, 1.8.7, 1.8.8, 1.8.9, 1.8.10, or 1.8.11
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Verify Pivotal Account application is in useCheck if the Pivotal Account component (the user management UI in Elastic Runtime) is deployed and accessible. This is typically accessed via the CF API endpoint used for user login and account managementAffected if Pivotal Account is deployed and accessible to users
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Confirm user authentication is enabledVerify that user authentication is configured for the Cloud Foundry environment. Check that the UAA (User Account and Authentication) server is running and accepting user loginsAffected if Users can authenticate to the system (the vulnerability requires an authenticated attacker to hijack another user's session)
You are affected if your Elastic Runtime version is any one of 1.8.0 through 1.8.11 and the Pivotal Account component is deployed and accessible to authenticated users.
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 dataUpgrade Pivotal Elastic Runtime to version 1.8.29 or later (1.8.x) or version 1.9.7 or later (1.9.x). Coordinate upgrade with overall PCF deployment to ensure component compatibility.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $11,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-4959 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
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-2017-4959 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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- 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