CVE-2011-3137 in Tivoli Federated Identity Manager Business Gateway
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Management Console in IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager (TFIM) 6.2.0 before 6.2.0.9 and Tivoli Federated Identity Manager Business Gateway (TFIMBG) 6.2.0 before 6.2.0.9 has unknown impact and attack vectors, aka APAR IV03050.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/02/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-3137 affects IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager versions 6.2.0 through 6.2.0.8 and the associated Business Gateway component, representing a significant security gap in identity federation management systems. This unspecified vulnerability resides within the Management Console component of these products, which serves as the primary administrative interface for configuring and managing federated identity services. The Management Console acts as a critical control point for identity providers, service providers, and trust relationships within the federated identity framework, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to compromise the entire identity ecosystem.
The technical nature of this vulnerability remains unspecified in the public disclosure, which is characteristic of certain high-severity issues where the exact flaw has not been fully detailed or where disclosure might expose additional attack surface. However, given that this affects the Management Console component of a federated identity system, the vulnerability likely involves privilege escalation, authentication bypass, or access control weaknesses that could allow unauthorized users to gain administrative privileges or access sensitive configuration data. The unspecified impact and attack vectors suggest that this vulnerability may have multiple exploitation pathways or that the exact technical flaw has not been publicly disclosed to prevent immediate exploitation while patches are developed and deployed.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple technical compromise, as it directly threatens the integrity of the entire federated identity infrastructure. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could potentially gain full administrative access to the TFIM system, allowing them to modify trust relationships, create new identity providers or service providers, manipulate user access controls, and ultimately compromise the authentication and authorization mechanisms that protect enterprise resources. This represents a severe risk to organizations relying on federated identity for single sign-on, cloud access, and cross-domain authentication scenarios. The attack vectors, while unspecified, would likely involve web application exploitation techniques such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection, or authentication bypass methods that could be leveraged through the web-based Management Console interface.
Organizations should consider this vulnerability in the context of the broader ATT&CK framework, particularly under the privilege escalation and defense evasion tactics, as attackers could use this flaw to establish persistent access to identity management systems. The vulnerability also aligns with CWE categories related to access control failures and authentication bypass mechanisms, which are commonly exploited in identity and access management systems. Given that this affects the Management Console, it represents a critical point of failure that could enable attackers to move laterally through enterprise networks, especially in environments where federated identity systems serve as central authentication hubs for multiple applications and services. The lack of specific details about the vulnerability's nature means that organizations must rely on vendor-provided patches and updates to address the issue, while also implementing additional monitoring and access controls to detect potential exploitation attempts.
The remediation approach for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate patching of affected systems to the latest available versions, specifically targeting the 6.2.0.9 releases for both TFIM and TFIMBG products. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive security assessments of their federated identity environments to identify any unauthorized access or configuration changes that may have occurred during the vulnerability window. Additional mitigations include implementing network segmentation around Management Console access, enforcing strict access controls and multi-factor authentication for administrative access, and establishing enhanced monitoring for unusual administrative activities within the identity management systems. Security teams should also review and validate existing identity federation configurations to ensure that any potential exploitation attempts would be detected through proper audit logging and intrusion detection systems.