CVE-2013-5847 in PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS eCompensation
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS eCompensation component in Oracle PeopleSoft Products 9.1 and 9.2 allows remote authenticated users to affect confidentiality via unknown vectors related to eCompensation.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/14/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-5847 resides within the PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS eCompensation component of Oracle PeopleSoft Products version 9.1 and 9.2. This represents a security flaw that affects the confidentiality aspect of the system's information security triad, though the specific technical mechanisms remain unspecified in the initial description. The vulnerability impacts remote authenticated users, indicating that an attacker must first establish valid credentials to exploit the weakness, which provides some level of access control but still creates significant security implications.
The eCompensation component within PeopleSoft HRMS is designed to manage compensation-related processes including salary structures, performance reviews, and compensation planning. This functionality typically handles sensitive employee compensation data, making the confidentiality aspect particularly critical. The unspecified nature of the vulnerability vectors suggests that the underlying flaw could potentially manifest through various attack paths including but not limited to improper input validation, insecure data handling, or flawed access control mechanisms within the component's codebase. The vulnerability's classification as affecting confidentiality indicates that unauthorized disclosure of sensitive compensation information could occur, potentially exposing employee salary details, performance metrics, and other proprietary compensation data.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents substantial risk to organizations relying on PeopleSoft HRMS for their human resources management. Compensation data represents highly sensitive information that, when compromised, can lead to financial loss, legal liability, and reputational damage. The remote exploitation capability means that attackers could potentially access this information from outside the organization's network, expanding the attack surface significantly. Organizations utilizing these specific versions of PeopleSoft HRMS may be exposed to unauthorized access to employee salary information, which could be exploited for competitive advantage, identity theft, or other malicious purposes. The authentication requirement does not eliminate the risk, as compromised credentials or credential theft scenarios could still enable exploitation.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-200, which addresses "Information Exposure," and could potentially map to various ATT&CK techniques related to credential access and privilege escalation. Organizations should consider implementing layered security controls including network segmentation, robust access controls, and continuous monitoring of the PeopleSoft environment. The lack of specific vulnerability details in the CVE description underscores the importance of maintaining updated security patches from Oracle, as well as implementing additional security measures such as database activity monitoring and network intrusion detection systems. Regular security assessments of PeopleSoft environments should include thorough examination of eCompensation components and related functionalities to identify potential weaknesses that could be exploited by threat actors.