CVE-2024-38092 is a vulnerability identified in Microsoft Azure CycleCloud version 7.9.10, classified under CWE-693, which denotes a protection mechanism failure. This vulnerability allows an attacker with limited privileges (PR:L) to elevate their privileges without requiring user interaction (UI:N), exploiting a flaw in the security controls designed to prevent unauthorized privilege escalation. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 indicates a high-severity issue, with an attack vector of network (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), and impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H). The vulnerability is exploitable remotely and does not require user interaction, making it particularly dangerous in cloud environments where Azure CycleCloud orchestrates and manages HPC clusters and cloud resources. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the potential for an attacker to gain elevated privileges could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, manipulation of cloud resources, or disruption of services. The lack of available patches at the time of publication necessitates immediate attention to access controls and monitoring. Azure CycleCloud is used by organizations to deploy and manage HPC clusters in Azure, making this vulnerability critical for environments relying on cloud-based scientific computing, simulations, and data processing.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2024-38092 could be severe, especially for those utilizing Azure CycleCloud for high-performance computing (HPC) workloads or cloud resource orchestration. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to gain elevated privileges, leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data, modification or destruction of critical workloads, and potential disruption of cloud services. This could affect confidentiality by exposing proprietary or personal data, integrity by allowing unauthorized changes to configurations or data, and availability by enabling denial-of-service conditions or resource misuse. Given the reliance on cloud infrastructure for research institutions, financial services, and critical infrastructure in Europe, the vulnerability poses a risk to operational continuity and data protection compliance under regulations such as GDPR. The remote exploitability and lack of required user interaction increase the threat level, making it a priority for security teams to address promptly.

To mitigate CVE-2024-38092, European organizations should: 1) Monitor Microsoft’s security advisories closely and apply patches or updates for Azure CycleCloud 7.9.10 as soon as they become available. 2) Implement strict role-based access controls (RBAC) to limit privileges to the minimum necessary, reducing the attack surface for privilege escalation. 3) Enable detailed logging and continuous monitoring of privilege changes and suspicious activities within Azure CycleCloud environments. 4) Use network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict access to Azure CycleCloud management interfaces to trusted IP ranges and personnel only. 5) Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing focused on privilege escalation vectors in cloud orchestration tools. 6) Educate administrators on the risks of privilege escalation and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all privileged accounts. 7) Consider deploying additional endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions that can detect anomalous behavior indicative of exploitation attempts.