CVE-2024-38092 is a vulnerability identified in Microsoft Azure CycleCloud version 7.9.10, classified under CWE-693, which relates to protection mechanism failures. This flaw allows an attacker with low-level privileges (PR:L - privileges required) to escalate their privileges to higher levels without requiring user interaction (UI:N). The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), making it accessible to a wide range of threat actors. The CVSS v3.1 score of 8.8 reflects high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H), meaning an attacker could gain full control over the affected system, potentially accessing sensitive data, modifying configurations, or disrupting services. The vulnerability is currently published with no known exploits in the wild, but the presence of a protection mechanism failure indicates a fundamental security design or implementation flaw in Azure CycleCloud’s privilege management. Azure CycleCloud is a tool used for managing and deploying HPC (High Performance Computing) clusters in Azure environments, often utilized by enterprises and research institutions. The lack of available patches at the time of reporting necessitates immediate attention to access controls and monitoring to mitigate risk until a fix is released.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2024-38092 could be severe due to the potential for attackers to gain administrative control over Azure CycleCloud environments. This could lead to unauthorized access to HPC workloads, sensitive research data, or critical cloud infrastructure components. The confidentiality breach could expose proprietary or personal data, while integrity and availability impacts could disrupt scientific computations, business operations, or cloud service availability. Given Azure’s widespread adoption in Europe, especially in sectors like finance, healthcare, research, and government, exploitation of this vulnerability could have cascading effects on national critical infrastructure and economic activities. Organizations relying on Azure CycleCloud for cluster management may face operational downtime, data loss, or compliance violations if the vulnerability is exploited.

Immediate mitigation steps include restricting access to Azure CycleCloud management interfaces to trusted administrators only and enforcing the principle of least privilege to minimize the number of users with elevated rights. Organizations should implement enhanced monitoring and logging to detect unusual privilege escalation attempts or anomalous administrative activities. Network segmentation can limit exposure by isolating Azure CycleCloud environments from broader corporate networks. Until a security patch is released by Microsoft, consider deploying compensating controls such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative accounts and conducting regular audits of user privileges. Engage with Microsoft support channels to obtain updates on patch availability and apply them promptly once released. Additionally, review and harden configuration settings in Azure CycleCloud to reduce attack surface and ensure secure default settings are enforced.