Description

Dell Cloud Disaster Recovery, versions 20.2 and prior, contain an Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') vulnerability. A high privileged attacker with remote access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Command execution.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "9.1",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-26T19:16:56.540Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-26T19:16:56.540Z",
  "executiveSummary": "Dell Cloud Disaster Recovery, in versions 20.2 and prior, is affected by an OS Command Injection vulnerability categorized under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command. This flaw allows a remote, high-privileged attacker to execute arbitrary system commands on the underlying host operating system.\nThe vulnerability stems from improper input validation or sanitization protocols when handling user-supplied data, permitting the injection and execution of unauthorized shell commands. The impact of successful exploitation is critical, as it grants an attacker the ability to execute commands with elevated privileges, potentially leading to a full system compromise, unauthorized data access, lateral movement within the network, or disruption of disaster recovery services.\nGiven that this vulnerability requires high-privileged access, the primary risk involves an attacker who has already gained an initial foothold or unauthorized elevated access to the system. Organizations utilizing the affected Dell Cloud Disaster Recovery versions are at significant risk if security controls governing privileged access are insufficient. Mitigation requires ensuring software is updated to a non-vulnerable version and enforcing the principle of least privilege for all administrative accounts.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides within the application's processing logic where user-supplied input is passed to system-level calls without sufficient neutralization of shell metacharacters. In Dell Cloud Disaster Recovery versions 20.2 and prior, the application fails to properly sanitize inputs used in command construction, creating a vector for OS Command Injection.\nThe root cause is identified as an Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command. When the application executes functions that interact with the host operating system, it fails to distinguish between intended application arguments and attacker-supplied malicious command sequences. An attacker with remote access and high privileges can leverage this by supplying crafted input containing shell operators—such as semicolons (;), pipes (|), or backticks (`)—which the system inadvertently executes as part of a shell script or process spawned by the application.\nThe attack flow begins with the adversary authenticating to the platform using legitimate, high-privileged credentials. Once authenticated, the attacker identifies a vulnerable interface or administrative parameter that passes data to the underlying OS. By injecting a command payload—for example, 'dummy_input; /bin/sh -c [malicious_command]'—the attacker forces the application to terminate the original intended command execution and instead execute the injected payload with the same system privileges held by the vulnerable service or application.\nBecause the execution occurs with high-level privileges, the attacker gains the ability to bypass application-level restrictions. Post-exploitation, the attacker may perform tasks such as installing persistent backdoors, escalating privileges further if necessary, exfiltrating sensitive disaster recovery data, or modifying system configurations to impede recovery processes. The exposure is limited to systems reachable over the network that permit access to the administrative interfaces affected by this command parsing flaw. Exploitation does not require local access, but it is strictly limited by the prerequisite of obtaining and utilizing high-privileged credentials to interact with the vulnerable application module."
}