Description

In HPE Cray Programming Environment versions 25.03 and 25.09, prior to 26.03, the method that CPE is deployed on HPCM potentially allows elevated access by a local unprivileged user.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-11-05T20:17:58.457Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-11-05T20:17:58.457Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A local privilege escalation vulnerability exists within the deployment methodology of the HPE Cray Programming Environment (CPE) on HPE Cluster Management (HPCM) systems.\nThe vulnerability allows a local unprivileged user to gain elevated access, potentially compromising the integrity and confidentiality of the affected computing environment.\nAffected products include HPE Cray Programming Environment versions 25.03 and 25.09.\nThe risk is categorized as high, as it grants unauthorized users heightened system privileges, which could be leveraged to gain full control over the local node or escalate further within the cluster infrastructure.\nExploitation requires local access to the system, meaning an attacker must already have an unprivileged shell or similar interface to initiate the exploit sequence.\nThe core issue stems from insecure deployment configurations that fail to enforce proper access control mechanisms, permitting unauthorized operations or execution of privileged tasks by non-administrative users.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides in the deployment and installation framework used by HPE Cray Programming Environment (CPE) when operating within the HPCM ecosystem. The root cause is identified as an improper configuration of file system permissions, process execution environment, or inter-process communication interfaces established during the CPE deployment phase.\nIn affected versions (25.03 and 25.09), the deployment architecture fails to maintain the principle of least privilege. Specifically, the mechanisms intended to isolate CPE administrative tasks from standard user activities are insufficient. This allows a local unprivileged user to interact with privileged components, interfaces, or configuration files that should be strictly restricted to the root user or authorized administrative groups.\nThe attack flow typically involves a local actor identifying a specific binary, script, or shared library associated with the CPE deployment that is invoked with elevated permissions or resides in a directory with permissive ACLs. By manipulating these insecurely configured components—such as by performing a symlink attack, exploiting a race condition in a setuid binary, or injecting malicious configuration files into the deployment pipeline—the user can trick the system into executing arbitrary code with higher privileges.\nBecause CPE components often operate with elevated execution contexts to facilitate environment management across the cluster, successful exploitation grants the attacker the execution context of the privileged service or the root user. Once elevated, the attacker can bypass OS-level access controls, modify critical system configuration files, install persistent backdoors, or access sensitive data belonging to other users or the HPCM management framework itself.\nThe vulnerability is limited to local exploitation, requiring the attacker to have an active session on a node where the CPE is deployed. There is no remote network vector directly attributed to this flaw; however, it represents a significant secondary exploitation vector in multi-tenant HPC environments where malicious users may attempt to escape their sandboxed environments to gain administrative control over compute nodes or management controllers.\nThe flaw is version-specific and is mitigated in versions 26.03 and later, suggesting that the remediation involves structural changes to how the CPE environment is instantiated, likely involving the implementation of more robust filesystem isolation, stricter binary permission management, and secure IPC handling during deployment."
}