Powerscale Onefs CVE-2024-53298

This vulnerability presents exceptionally high real-world risk across multiple assessment frameworks. CVSS 3.1 vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H indicates network-adjacent attack surface (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privilege requirements (PR:N), no user interaction needed (UI:N), and unrestricted scope impact (S:U) with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact (C:H/I:H/A:H)—this is the most dangerous profile. The attack complexity being low is critical: any network-connected attacker can exploit via standard NFS client tools without specialized knowledge. From a SSVC perspective: exploitation is likely rapid and automatable (standard NFS mount commands), the technical impact is catastrophic (complete filesystem compromise including data exfiltration and integrity violation), and automatable impact on organizational mission is very high. This is NOT a low-real-risk-high-CVSS scenario; rather, all signals align to genuine critical severity. The absence of authentication requirements makes this particularly dangerous in cloud/hybrid environments and for any organization with network-accessible PowerScale systems. Priority remediation is essential.

An attacker on the same network segment as a Dell PowerScale system (or with network routing to it) executes standard Linux/Unix NFS client commands: 'showmount -e <powerscale-ip>' to enumerate exported filesystems, then 'mount -t nfs <powerscale-ip>:/ifs /mnt/target' to mount an export. Due to missing authorization checks, the mount succeeds without credentials. The attacker then navigates the mounted filesystem, reads sensitive data (CVSS C:H), modifies or deletes files including system configurations and backups (CVSS I:H), and potentially disrupts service availability (CVSS A:H). In a cloud environment, this could be triggered from a compromised VM or container in the same VPC; in enterprise networks, from a compromised workstation or supply-chain compromise. No special tools, POC code, or advanced exploitation technique is required—standard operating system utilities suffice, making this highly automatable and suitable for mass scanning/exploitation campaigns. The attack is instantaneous upon successful mount, requiring seconds to minutes for a full filesystem compromise.