Automating Mitigation of the Microsoft (CVE-2020-1350) Security Vulnerability in Windows Domain Name System Using Ansible Tower

On July 14, 2020, a Critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in Windows DNS Server was released that is classified as a ‘wormable’ vulnerability, and has a CVSS base score of 10.0. This issue results from a flaw in Microsoft’s DNS server role implementation and affects all Windows Server versions. Non-Microsoft DNS Servers are not affected.

Updates to this vulnerability are available. However, in some use cases, applying the update quickly might not be practical: in many enterprises, even hotfixes need to run through a series of tests that require time. For such cases, a registry-based workaround is available that also requires restarting the DNS service.  However, doing so manually is time consuming and prone to error, especially if many servers are involved. For customers with the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, a playbook has been written to automate the workaround.

Background of the vulnerability

The vulnerability is described in CVE-2020-1350

Wormable vulnerabilities have the potential to spread via malware between vulnerable computers without user interaction. Windows DNS Server is a core networking component. While this vulnerability is not currently known to be used in active attacks, it is essential that customers apply Windows updates to address Continue reading

Automating Mitigation of the F5 BIG-IP TMUI RCE Security Vulnerability Using Ansible Tower (CVE-2020-5902)

On June 30, 2020, a security vulnerability affecting multiple BIG-IP platforms from F5 Networks was made public with a CVSS score of 10 (Critical). Due to the significance of the vulnerability, network administrators are advised to mitigate this issue in a timely manner. Doing so manually is tricky, especially if many devices are involved. Because F5 BIG-IP and BIG-IQ are certified with the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, we can use it to tackle the issue.

This post provides one way of temporarily mitigating CVE-2020-5902 via Ansible Tower without upgrading the BIG-IP platform. However, larger customers like service providers might struggle to upgrade on a short notice, as they may have to go through a lengthy internal validation process. For those situations, an automated mitigation may be a reasonable workaround until such time to perform an upgrade.

Background of the vulnerability

The vulnerability is described in K52145254 of the F5 Networks support knowledgebase: 

The Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI), also referred to as the Configuration utility, has a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in undisclosed pages.

And describes the impact is serious:

This vulnerability allows for unauthenticated attackers, or authenticated users, with network access to the Configuration Continue reading