Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2023-4976

CRITICAL · 9.3 CVSS v4.0 Published 2024-07-17
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
A flaw exists in FlashBlade whereby a local account is permitted to authenticate to the management interface using an unintended method that allows an attacker to gain privileged access to the array.

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 · moderate confidence

A local account on Pure Storage FlashBlade can authenticate to the management interface via an unintended method, bypassing normal authentication controls and allowing escalation to privileged (administrator) access on the array.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied patch from Pure Storage; restrict management interface network exposure; review and remediate local account permissions until patch is available.

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

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
Privileges
None
Authentication
X
User interaction
None
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

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. Confirm Pure Storage FlashBlade deployment
    Identify if your system is a Pure Storage FlashBlade array by checking the product model via 'pureadmin list' or the management UI login page banner
    Affected if System is not a FlashBlade array (not affected)
  2. Identify local authentication accounts
    Run 'pureadmin list' or access the management UI to list all locally-defined user accounts (as opposed to directory/SSO-connected accounts)
    Affected if Local user accounts exist on the array
  3. Check management interface accessibility
    Verify if the FlashBlade management interface (HTTPS on port 443) is exposed to untrusted networks by reviewing network ACLs, firewall rules, or VLAN configuration
    Affected if Management interface is accessible from untrusted networks
  4. Review local account privilege assignments
    Run 'pureadmin list --detail' or check account role assignments in the management UI to identify which local accounts have administrator or elevated privileges
    Affected if Local accounts are assigned administrator or privileged roles
  5. Compare your FlashBlade version to vendor advisories
    Run 'purefa info' or check the UI for the installed FlashBlade firmware version, then cross-reference with Pure Storage security advisories for CVE-2023-4976
    Affected if Your version matches the affected version range per vendor documentation

You are affected if you have a Pure Storage FlashBlade with local user accounts that can access the management interface, particularly if those accounts have elevated privileges.

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

Apply vendor-supplied patch from Pure Storage; restrict management interface network exposure; review and remediate local account permissions until patch is available.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
19.0 hours of engineering $3,380
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-4976 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-4976 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data