Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This issue affects NetApp VASA Provider for Clustered Data ONTAP before 7.0P1. Its web server accepts authentication in plain text, creating a risk that an attacker who can observe or reach relevant traffic could obtain credentials. Business urgency depends on whether this storage management component is deployed and reachable.
Executive priority
Prioritize verification if NetApp VASA Provider is used in storage or virtualization operations. The issue can expose credentials, but public evidence in the bundle does not establish active exploitation or severity scoring.
Technical view
CVE-2016-6904 is a credential exposure flaw in the web server component of NetApp VASA Provider for Clustered Data ONTAP versions prior to 7.0P1. The public bundle does not provide CVSS, CWE, attack complexity, or detailed network prerequisites.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to environments running the affected NetApp VASA Provider, typically storage or virtualization management contexts. Risk increases if the web service is reachable from untrusted networks or credentials traverse observable network paths.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or any cited evidence of active exploitation. It only states that an unauthenticated attacker could obtain authentication credentials because plain text authentication is accepted.
Researcher notes
Key gaps are missing CVSS, CWE, protocol specifics, and exploit evidence. Treat the vendor advisory and version boundary as authoritative, but avoid assuming broader NetApp product impact beyond the named VASA Provider for Clustered Data ONTAP.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory NetApp VASA Provider deployments and identify versions before 7.0P1.
- Upgrade affected instances to 7.0P1 or later where vendor guidance supports it.
- Restrict provider web access to trusted management networks.
- Rotate credentials that may have traversed affected services.
- Review NetApp advisory NTAP-20171208-0002 for environment-specific guidance.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether VASA Provider for Clustered Data ONTAP is deployed.
- Record installed version and compare against 7.0P1.
- Verify management web access is not exposed to untrusted networks.
- Review logs for unusual access to the provider web service.
- Confirm credential rotation after remediation if exposure is plausible.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2016-6904 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20171208-0002/CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.