Rapid7 Nexpose Certificate Validation Issue

Summary

Rapid7 Nexpose and InsightVM versions 6.6.82 through 6.6.177 fail to validate the certificate of the update server when downloading updates. This failure could allow an attacker in a privileged position on the network to provide their own HTTPS endpoint, or intercept communications to the legitimate endpoint. The attacker would need some pre-existing access to at least one node on the network path between the Rapid7-controlled update server and the Nexpose/InsightVM application, and the ability to either spoof the update server's FQDN or redirect legitimate traffic to the attacker's server in order to exploit this vulnerability. Note that even in this scenario, an attacker could not normally replace an update package with a malicious package, since the update process validates a separate, code-signing certificate, distinct from the HTTPS certificate used for communication. This issue was resolved on February 1, 2023 in update 6.6.178 of Nexpose and InsightVM.