CVE-2012-0730 in Rational AppScan
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in IBM Rational AppScan Enterprise 5.x and 8.x before 8.5.0.1 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that create administrative accounts.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/13/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-0730 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting IBM Rational AppScan Enterprise versions 5.x and 8.x prior to 8.5.0.1. This weakness resides in the web application's authentication and session management mechanisms, specifically within the administrative account creation functionality. The vulnerability enables remote attackers to exploit the lack of proper CSRF protection measures, allowing them to manipulate administrative sessions and perform unauthorized actions. The flaw manifests when legitimate administrative requests are executed without proper validation of the request origin, creating a pathway for malicious actors to hijack active administrator sessions and execute administrative commands on behalf of authenticated users. This issue directly violates fundamental web security principles and represents a significant escalation from standard user privileges to administrative control.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient anti-CSRF token validation within the administrative account creation endpoints of the AppScan Enterprise application. When administrators perform account creation tasks through web interfaces, the application fails to properly validate that requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions rather than crafted malicious payloads. This allows attackers to construct specially formatted requests that, when executed by an authenticated administrator, create new administrative accounts without proper authorization. The vulnerability specifically targets the session management layer and demonstrates a failure in implementing proper request origin verification mechanisms. According to CWE classification, this corresponds to CWE-352, Cross-Site Request Forgery, which encompasses weaknesses where applications fail to validate the source of requests that modify application state. The attack vector leverages the trust relationship between the web application and authenticated users, exploiting the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or other validation mechanisms that would prevent unauthorized requests from being processed.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, creating significant risks for organizations relying on IBM Rational AppScan Enterprise for security assessment and compliance monitoring. Successful exploitation allows attackers to gain persistent administrative access to the AppScan Enterprise environment, potentially compromising the entire security monitoring infrastructure. Attackers could create backdoor administrative accounts, modify existing user permissions, access sensitive security scan data, and potentially disrupt the organization's security assessment capabilities. The vulnerability undermines the integrity of the application's administrative functions and could lead to unauthorized access to critical security information, making it particularly dangerous in environments where AppScan Enterprise is used for compliance auditing and vulnerability management. Organizations utilizing this software may experience data breaches, unauthorized system modifications, and potential regulatory compliance violations. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1078 Valid Accounts and T1548.001 Account Manipulation, as attackers can establish persistent access through legitimate administrative accounts created through the CSRF exploit.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2012-0730 should prioritize immediate patching of affected IBM Rational AppScan Enterprise installations to version 8.5.0.1 or later, which includes proper CSRF token implementation and validation mechanisms. Organizations should implement additional security controls such as network segmentation to limit access to administrative interfaces, enforce multi-factor authentication for administrative accounts, and deploy web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious requests. The remediation process must include thorough review of all administrative endpoints for similar CSRF vulnerabilities and implementation of comprehensive anti-CSRF token mechanisms throughout the application. Security teams should also conduct regular vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate similar weaknesses in other applications and systems. Access controls should be reviewed and restricted to minimize the attack surface, with administrative functions requiring additional verification steps beyond simple authentication. Organizations must also establish incident response procedures to detect and respond to potential exploitation attempts, including monitoring for unauthorized administrative account creation and anomalous administrative activities that may indicate successful exploitation of this vulnerability.