CVE-2024-4578
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 · uneditedThis Advisory describes an issue that impacts Arista Wireless Access Points. Any entity with the ability to authenticate via SSH to an affected AP as the “config” user is able to cause a privilege escalation via spawning a bash shell. The SSH CLI session does not require high permissions to exploit this vulnerability, but the config password is required to establish the session. The spawned shell is able to obtain root 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 confidenceArista Wireless Access Points contain a privilege escalation vulnerability where any user who can authenticate via SSH using the 'config' user credentials can spawn a bash shell that runs with root privileges. The config user has low permissions but can spawn a root shell without requiring elevated access.
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
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/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 the device model and firmware versionAccess the AP's web interface or CLI and run 'show version' or check the device info page to confirm it is an Arista Wireless Access Point and note the firmware versionAffected if The device is an Arista Wireless Access Point regardless of version (no fixed version range provided)
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Verify SSH service is enabledFrom an administrative console, check if SSH is allowed on the device. This can be done via the web UI under Management > Access settings, or by attempting an outbound connection to TCP port 22 on the AP's management IPAffected if SSH is accessible on the device (the vulnerability requires SSH authentication to exploit)
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Confirm the 'config' user account existsAttempt to authenticate via SSH using the username 'config' with its configured password. If the login succeeds, the account exists and is activeAffected if You can successfully SSH to the device using the 'config' user credentials
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Test for root shell escalationAfter SSH login as 'config' user, run 'bash' or spawn a shell command and check the resulting shell's privileges with 'id' or 'whoami'Affected if The shell spawns with UID 0 (root) or the 'id' command shows euid=0
If you have an Arista Wireless AP with SSH accessible and the 'config' user can authenticate, you are affected since that user can obtain a root shell.
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 dataRestrict SSH access to trusted management networks, change the config user password immediately, and apply vendor firmware updates when available. Consider disabling SSH on affected devices if not required for management.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 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-2024-4578 — 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-2024-4578 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
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