Steeltoe's sensitive actuators (heapdump/env) only require Restricted permission

Overview

Summary

All Steeltoe actuator endpoints default to EndpointPermissions.Restricted, which is mapped to Cloud Foundry's read_basic_data permission (granted to Space Auditors and similar low-trust roles). Sensitive actuators including heap dump, environment, and thread dump do not raise this to EndpointPermissions.Full, so CF's read_sensitive_data permission flag is not enforced for those endpoints. Spring Boot's equivalent Cloud Foundry integration gates these endpoints with read_sensitive_data by default.

Impact

Any CF user holding Space Auditor, Space Manager, or Org Auditor role can access the heap dump, environment, and thread dump actuators for any Steeltoe application in their space. A heap dump contains all in-memory data including database passwords, bearer tokens, and VCAP_SERVICES credentials. CF's read_sensitive_data permission, which is specifically designed to gate this access, has no effect.

Affected configuration

• Application is deployed on Cloud Foundry with CF actuator and security middleware active (added automatically by AddAllActuators() when a CF environment is detected).
• The attacker holds a CF role that grants read_basic_data: Space Auditor, Space Manager, or Org Auditor.

Mitigations

If an immediate upgrade is not possible:

• Explicitly set RequiredPermissions = EndpointPermissions.Full in the options for HeapDumpEndpointOptions, EnvironmentEndpointOptions, and ThreadDumpEndpointOptions.
• If heap dump, thread dump, or environment are not needed in production, register only the required actuators individually instead of using AddAllActuators().

Affected packages

• Steeltoe.Management.Endpoint <= 4.1.0
• Steeltoe.Management.EndpointBase <= 3.3.0

Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

• Steeltoe.Management.Endpoint 4.2.0
• Steeltoe.Management.EndpointBase 3.4.0