CVE-2013-0532 in Rational Policy Tester
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in IBM Security AppScan Enterprise 5.6 and 8.x before 8.7 and IBM Rational Policy Tester 5.6 and 8.x before 8.5.0.4 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that cause a denial of service via malformed HTTP data.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/09/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-0532 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting IBM Security AppScan Enterprise and IBM Rational Policy Tester products. This CSRF vulnerability exists in versions 5.6 and 8.x prior to specific patch releases, creating a significant security risk that allows remote attackers to exploit authentication mechanisms for malicious purposes. The flaw specifically enables attackers to manipulate HTTP requests in ways that can trigger denial of service conditions while leveraging legitimate user sessions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request origins and lack of proper anti-CSRF token mechanisms within the affected IBM security tools. When users interact with the vulnerable applications, the systems fail to adequately verify that requests originate from legitimate sources, allowing attackers to craft malicious requests that appear to come from authenticated users. This weakness falls under CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities in software applications. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it operates at the application layer, where it can bypass traditional network-level security controls and directly target authenticated sessions.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for organizations using these security tools, as attackers could potentially disrupt critical security operations through denial of service attacks. The ability to hijack user authentication for arbitrary requests means that even authorized users could be exploited to perform actions that compromise system availability and integrity. Organizations relying on these tools for security testing and policy enforcement face potential operational disruption when attackers leverage this vulnerability to cause service interruptions. The attack vector through malformed HTTP data suggests that the vulnerability could be exploited through various input manipulation techniques, making it particularly challenging to defend against.
The exploitation of this CSRF vulnerability aligns with several tactics described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework, particularly those related to privilege escalation and denial of service operations. Attackers could use this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to security tools and potentially compromise the integrity of security testing operations. Organizations should implement comprehensive patch management strategies to address this vulnerability, ensuring that all affected versions of IBM Security AppScan Enterprise and IBM Rational Policy Tester are updated to patched releases. Additionally, network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect anomalous HTTP request patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security tooling and implementing proper input validation controls to prevent unauthorized session hijacking and service disruption attacks.