DigitalOcean is warning customers that some 1-Click applications running MySQL have an account with the same default password across all instances, and the company says the issue affects other cloud providers as well.
DigitalOcean customers reported on social media that they received an email recommending that they run a script to determine if their Droplets – the name used by the company for its cloud servers – are affected by the vulnerability.
The company allows its users to deploy pre-built and pre-configured applications with only one click. The list of 1-Click (One-Click) applications includes Node.js, Rails, Redis, MongoDB, Docker, GitLab, Magento and many others.
DigitalOcean discovered that 1-Click applications running MySQL on Debian and Ubuntu create a MySQL user named “debian-sys-maint” that has the same password on all Droplets created from a 1-Click image.
The “debian-sys-maint” user is designed for local administration purposes and it should have a random password. However, due to a bug, all instances of an application created from the same 1-Click image have the same password.
DigitalOcean said the vulnerability, which is “potentially remotely exploitable,” affects MySQL and several other applications that use MySQL, including PHPMyAdmin, LAMP, LEMP, WordPress and OwnCloud.
“We will be issuing a public notice regarding this issue, but first wanted to ensure our impacted users had time to take action,” the company said in its email to customers. “As part of our verification process, we have discovered that images on other cloud providers also have this mis-configuration.”
DigitalOcean has provided a script that allows users to determine if their Droplets are affected and updates their password if needed. The script works on Ubuntu 14, 16 and 17, and Debian 7 and 8; Debian 9 is not impacted.
Customers who have changed the password for the “debian-sys-maint” user after installation of a 1-Click app are not affected by the flaw and they don’t need to take any action.
“We have changed our 1-Clicks to ensure that all future Droplets will have unique, auto-generated passwords for this user,” DigitalOcean said.
Related Reading: Cloudflare Leaked Sensitive Customer Data
Related Reading: Oracle Improves Cloud Security Offering
Related Reading: Cloud Security Firm ShieldX Emerges From Stealth
