CVE-2017-4961
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 Cloud Foundry Foundation BOSH Release 261.x versions prior to 261.3 and all 260.x versions. In certain cases an authenticated Director user can provide a malicious checksum that could allow them to escalate their privileges on the Director VM, aka "BOSH Director Shell Injection Vulnerabilities."
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 confidenceShell injection vulnerability in BOSH Director allowing authenticated users to provide a malicious checksum to escalate privileges to root on the Director VM. Affects BOSH Release 261.x versions prior to 261.3 and all 260.x versions.
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= 260= 260.1= 260.2= 260.3= 260.4= 260.5= 260.6= 260.7= 261= 261.1= 261.2CVSS 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 BOSH Director installationLocate the BOSH Director component in your Cloud Foundry deployment. This is typically managed via bosh-init or as part of the Cloud Foundry deployment manifest. Check your deployment configuration files or running processes for the bosh-director service.Affected if BOSH Director is present in the environment
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Determine installed BOSH Director versionRun `bosh --version` or check the BOSH release manifest deployed in your environment. The version is typically listed in the BOSH release or stemcell deployment configuration.Affected if The version matches 260.x (any patch) or 261.0 through 261.2 (i.e., 260, 260.1, 260.2, 260.3, 260.4, 260.5, 260.6, 260.7, 261, 261.1, or 261.2)
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Verify authenticated user access to Director APIConfirm that the BOSH Director API is accessible to users. This involves checking if user authentication is configured for the Director and whether non-admin users can interact with the Director via the bosh CLI or API.Affected if Users are authenticated and can make requests to the Director API, as the vulnerability requires an authenticated user to supply a malicious checksum
A user is affected if they have any BOSH Director version 260.x or 261.0-261.2 deployed and accessible to authenticated users, since the shell injection can be exploited to escalate to root privileges.
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 BOSH Director to version 261.3 or later (for 261.x) or apply patches to 260.x versions. This HIGH severity (CVSS 8.8) vulnerability requires immediate remediation due to privilege escalation risk.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-4961 — 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-2017-4961 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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