CVE-2012-6355 in SmartCloud Control Desk
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Maximo Asset Management 6.2 through 7.5, Maximo Asset Management Essentials 6.2 through 7.5, Tivoli Asset Management for IT 6.2 through 7.2, Tivoli Service Request Manager 7.1 and 7.2, Maximo Service Desk 6.2, Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB) 7.1 and 7.2, and SmartCloud Control Desk 7.5 allow remote authenticated users to gain privileges via vectors related to a work order.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/07/2017
This vulnerability represents a significant privilege escalation flaw affecting multiple IBM Maximo products including Asset Management, Service Request Manager, and related enterprise asset management solutions. The issue stems from improper access control mechanisms within the work order processing functionality, allowing authenticated users to manipulate system permissions and elevate their privileges. The vulnerability affects versions ranging from 6.2 through 7.5 across several IBM Maximo product lines, indicating a widespread impact across the enterprise asset management ecosystem. This type of flaw falls under CWE-276, which specifically addresses improper privileges, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and privilege escalation.
The technical exploitation occurs through work order related vectors that enable attackers to manipulate the underlying authorization checks within the application. When authenticated users interact with work order processing functions, the system fails to properly validate whether the user has appropriate permissions for the requested operations. This allows malicious actors to perform actions that should be restricted to higher-privileged users, potentially gaining access to sensitive data, modifying critical system configurations, or performing administrative functions. The vulnerability demonstrates poor input validation and insufficient access control enforcement mechanisms within the application's security model.
The operational impact of this privilege escalation vulnerability is substantial for organizations relying on these Maximo solutions. Attackers with basic user accounts could potentially access confidential asset information, modify work order records to hide or alter critical maintenance activities, or gain administrative access to perform unauthorized system changes. This poses significant risks to operational integrity, compliance requirements, and data security within enterprise environments where these applications manage critical infrastructure assets. Organizations may face regulatory compliance violations, operational disruptions, and potential financial losses due to unauthorized access to sensitive business-critical systems.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patches for affected versions, implementing network segmentation to limit access to these applications, and conducting thorough access control reviews. Security teams should also deploy monitoring solutions to detect anomalous work order processing activities and establish stricter audit trails for administrative functions. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper security testing for enterprise applications and demonstrates the critical need for robust access control mechanisms. Organizations should also consider implementing zero-trust network architectures and regular security assessments to identify similar privilege escalation vulnerabilities in their enterprise application portfolios. Additionally, the incident underscores the necessity of maintaining up-to-date security patches and following secure coding practices to prevent such access control flaws from occurring in the first place.