CVE-2009-5085 in Tivoli Federated Identity Manager
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager (TFIM) 6.2.0 before 6.2.0.2, when configured as an OpenID provider, does not delete the site information cookie in response to a user s deletion of a relying-party trust entry, which allows user-assisted remote attackers to bypass intended trust restrictions via vectors that trigger absence of the consent-to-authenticate page.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/18/2018
IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager version 6.2.0 before 6.2.0.2 contains a critical session management vulnerability that affects systems configured as OpenID providers. This vulnerability stems from improper cookie handling mechanisms within the trust management framework, specifically failing to invalidate site information cookies when relying-party trust entries are removed by users. The flaw exists in the authentication flow where the system maintains session state information in cookies even after trust relationships have been explicitly deleted, creating a persistent security gap that undermines the intended access control policies.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the failure to properly synchronize cookie state with trust relationship changes within the OpenID provider architecture. When a user deletes a relying-party trust entry through the administrative interface, the system should immediately invalidate all associated session cookies and site information tokens to prevent unauthorized access. However, the vulnerability allows attackers to exploit this inconsistency by leveraging the remaining cookie state to bypass authentication consent pages and gain unauthorized access to services that should require explicit user consent. This represents a classic session management weakness that aligns with CWE-613, which describes insufficient session expiration or cleanup mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple access control bypasses to potentially enable unauthorized service consumption and data exposure. Attackers can exploit this weakness to impersonate users across different relying parties without proper authentication consent, effectively circumventing the trust relationship management that TFIM is designed to enforce. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it requires minimal user interaction to exploit, making it a user-assisted remote attack vector that can be triggered through normal administrative operations. This weakness directly violates the principle of least privilege and can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive resources that were intended to be protected by explicit trust relationships.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with several ATT&CK techniques including T1566 for credential access through session manipulation and T1078 for valid accounts usage. Organizations relying on TFIM for identity federation may experience unauthorized access to protected services, potential data breaches, and violation of compliance requirements for identity management. The vulnerability essentially creates a persistent backdoor through cookie state management that allows attackers to maintain access even after legitimate trust relationships have been removed. This makes it particularly challenging to detect and remediate since the affected systems may appear normal from a configuration standpoint while still maintaining unauthorized access capabilities.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching to TFIM version 6.2.0.2 or later, which addresses the cookie cleanup mechanism during trust relationship deletion. Organizations should also implement additional monitoring for trust relationship changes and cookie state consistency checks to detect potential exploitation attempts. Security teams should review existing trust relationships and ensure proper cookie invalidation procedures are in place, while also implementing network-level controls to monitor for unauthorized authentication attempts. The fix addresses the core issue by ensuring that when trust entries are deleted, all associated session cookies and site information are properly cleared from the client-side to prevent continued access through stale session tokens.