CVE-2008-0896 in WebLogic Portal
Summary
by MITRE
BEA WebLogic Portal 10.0 and 9.2 through MP1, when an administrator deletes a single instance of a content portlet, removes entitlement policies for other content portlets, which allows attackers to bypass intended access restrictions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/09/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-0896 represents a critical access control flaw within BEA WebLogic Portal versions 10.0 and 9.2 through MP1. This weakness manifests when administrators perform routine maintenance operations by deleting individual content portlet instances, creating an unintended side effect that compromises the security posture of the entire portal environment. The flaw operates at the intersection of privilege management and entitlement enforcement, where the deletion process fails to properly isolate the scope of administrative actions, leading to cascading policy removals that extend beyond the intended target.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient boundary checking within the portal's administrative interface and entitlement management system. When an administrator executes a delete operation on a specific content portlet instance, the underlying system incorrectly propagates the removal of associated entitlement policies to other unrelated content portlets within the same portal environment. This represents a classic case of improper access control enforcement where the system fails to maintain proper separation of privileges and entitlement scopes, allowing unauthorized access to restricted content that should remain protected by specific access policies.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a significant security risk that can be exploited by malicious actors with administrative access or those who can gain such privileges through other means. The bypass of intended access restrictions means that attackers can potentially access sensitive content, documents, or data that should only be available to specific user groups or roles. This flaw undermines the fundamental security model of the portal system and can result in data breaches, information disclosure, and unauthorized access to confidential business information. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates silently in the background during normal administrative operations, making detection difficult and potentially allowing prolonged unauthorized access.
The flaw aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with the ATT&CK technique T1078 for Valid Accounts and T1566 for Phishing. Organizations utilizing BEA WebLogic Portal in production environments should immediately implement mitigation strategies including patching to the latest available versions, implementing additional access controls, and conducting thorough security audits of entitlement policies. The recommended remediation involves applying the vendor-supplied security patches and implementing proper privilege separation to ensure that administrative actions do not inadvertently affect unrelated system components. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing monitoring solutions that can detect anomalous administrative activities and policy changes that may indicate exploitation attempts of this vulnerability.