CVE-2013-0484 in Cognos TM1
Summary
by MITRE
The server process in IBM Cognos TM1 10.1.x before 10.1.1 FP1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via an undocumented API call that triggers the transmission of unexpected data.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/23/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-0484 affects IBM Cognos TM1 version 10.1.x before 10.1.1 FP1, representing a critical denial of service flaw within the server process. This vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and error handling mechanisms within the application's undocumented API interface. The flaw specifically manifests when remote attackers exploit a particular API call that, when executed, causes the TM1 server daemon to crash and terminate unexpectedly. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple service interruption as it represents a fundamental weakness in the application's ability to handle malformed or unexpected data inputs through its API endpoints.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-20, which describes improper input validation, and CWE-116, which addresses improper encoding or escaping of output. The flaw operates at the protocol level where the TM1 server fails to properly sanitize or validate incoming API requests that contain unexpected data patterns. This weakness creates a condition where the server process cannot gracefully handle exceptional circumstances, leading to abrupt termination of the daemon service. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal privileges as it targets a network-accessible API endpoint, making it particularly dangerous in environments where TM1 serves as a critical business intelligence platform.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risk to enterprise environments relying on IBM Cognos TM1 for financial planning, forecasting, and business analytics. The denial of service impact can result in complete disruption of analytical workflows, data processing pipelines, and business intelligence reporting systems. Organizations utilizing TM1 for mission-critical applications face potential financial losses, operational downtime, and compromised decision-making processes during the service interruption period. The vulnerability's presence in the server process means that even a single successful exploitation attempt can bring down the entire analytical platform, affecting multiple concurrent users and applications that depend on TM1 services.
The attack vector for this vulnerability follows the patterns described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the T1499 category for network denial of service, where adversaries leverage application-level weaknesses to disrupt services. The lack of proper error handling and input validation creates a pathway for attackers to systematically crash the service through carefully crafted API calls. This vulnerability demonstrates poor defensive programming practices and highlights the importance of implementing robust input validation, proper error handling, and defensive coding techniques. Organizations should implement network segmentation, access controls, and monitoring solutions to detect and prevent exploitation attempts while applying the vendor-provided patch for version 10.1.1 FP1 or higher to remediate the vulnerability.