CVE-2011-3138 in Tivoli Federated Identity Manager Business Gateway
Summary
by MITRE
The LTPA STS module support implementation 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 relies on a static instance of a Java Development Kit (JDK) class, which might allow attackers to bypass LTPA token signature verification by leveraging lack of thread safety.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/02/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-3138 affects IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager versions 6.2.0 through 6.2.0.8 and the corresponding Business Gateway implementations. This issue stems from a fundamental flaw in how the LTPA Security Token Service module handles Java class instantiation, creating a critical security weakness that undermines the integrity of token-based authentication mechanisms. The problem manifests specifically within the implementation of the LTPA token signature verification process, where the system utilizes a static instance of a JDK class rather than creating thread-safe instances for each authentication request.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper handling of thread safety within the Java runtime environment. When multiple concurrent authentication requests occur simultaneously, the static instance of the JDK class becomes shared across all threads, leading to unpredictable behavior during signature verification operations. This flaw creates a race condition scenario where the state of the verification class can be corrupted or manipulated by concurrent access patterns. The lack of proper synchronization mechanisms means that attackers can exploit this shared resource to craft malicious LTPA tokens that appear valid to the system while actually bypassing the intended security controls. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-833, which describes the weakness of having multiple threads access a shared resource without proper synchronization, and represents a classic example of thread safety issues in security-critical components.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it allows attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms that are designed to protect sensitive enterprise resources. Successful exploitation enables unauthorized access to federated identity services, potentially leading to complete compromise of the authentication infrastructure. Attackers can leverage this weakness to impersonate legitimate users, access protected applications and data, and potentially escalate privileges within the federated identity environment. The vulnerability affects the core security posture of TFIM implementations, undermining trust in the authentication system and creating potential pathways for lateral movement within enterprise networks. This weakness particularly impacts organizations that rely heavily on federated identity solutions for single sign-on capabilities and cross-domain authentication scenarios.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to the patched versions of IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager 6.2.0.9 or later, which contain the necessary thread safety improvements. System administrators should also consider implementing additional monitoring and logging mechanisms to detect anomalous authentication patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The patch addresses the underlying thread safety issue by ensuring that each authentication request creates its own instance of the required JDK class rather than relying on a shared static instance. Security teams should also review their existing access controls and implement network segmentation to limit the potential impact of any successful exploitation attempts. Organizations may need to conduct comprehensive security assessments of their federated identity environments to identify other potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited in conjunction with this weakness. The remediation process should include thorough testing of the patched implementations to ensure that the thread safety improvements do not introduce any regressions in the authentication service functionality.