CVE-2013-5890 in Payroll
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Oracle Payroll component in Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10.2, 12.0.6, 12.1.1, 12.1.2, 12.1.3, and 12.2.2 allows remote authenticated users to affect confidentiality and integrity via unknown vectors related to Exception Reporting.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/06/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-5890 resides within the Oracle Payroll component of Oracle E-Business Suite, a critical enterprise resource planning system widely deployed across global organizations. This weakness affects multiple versions including 11.5.10.2, 12.0.6, 12.1.1, 12.1.2, 12.1.3, and 12.2.2, indicating a significant attack surface that spans several generations of the software. The vulnerability specifically relates to Exception Reporting functionality within the payroll module, which is responsible for handling and displaying error conditions that occur during payroll processing operations. The unspecified nature of the exact vector makes this vulnerability particularly concerning as it could potentially encompass multiple attack pathways that security teams must consider when assessing risk.
The technical flaw manifests as a weakness in how the Oracle Payroll component processes exception reporting scenarios, creating potential entry points for malicious actors to compromise system integrity and confidentiality. While the precise technical mechanism remains unspecified in the public description, the classification as affecting both confidentiality and integrity suggests that attackers could potentially access sensitive payroll data while simultaneously modifying system behavior or data. This dual impact capability aligns with common security principles where a single vulnerability can enable both information disclosure and data manipulation attacks. The authentication requirement indicates that attackers must first establish legitimate credentials, but once authenticated, they can leverage this vulnerability within the payroll processing context, potentially affecting sensitive employee compensation data, tax calculations, and other critical financial information.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data compromise, as payroll systems contain highly sensitive information including personal identification numbers, salary details, tax withholdings, and benefits calculations. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could potentially alter payroll calculations, manipulate employee compensation records, or extract confidential payroll information that could be used for financial fraud or identity theft. The distributed nature of Oracle E-Business Suite deployments means that organizations may have multiple instances of this vulnerability across their enterprise systems, potentially affecting hundreds or thousands of payroll processing operations. The severity is compounded by the fact that payroll data is often processed in batch mode, making detection of unauthorized modifications more challenging and potentially allowing attackers to establish persistent access patterns.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies focusing on network segmentation and access controls to limit the potential attack surface for authenticated users. The vulnerability's classification under CWE categories related to information disclosure and data manipulation indicates that standard security controls such as least privilege access, regular patch management, and monitoring of payroll system activities become critical defensive measures. Security teams should consider implementing database activity monitoring specifically for payroll-related tables and queries, as well as establishing baseline behavioral patterns for payroll processing to detect anomalous activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. The ATT&CK framework's methodology for privilege escalation and credential access would be particularly relevant in understanding how an attacker might leverage this vulnerability to move laterally within the enterprise environment, potentially accessing additional systems that contain sensitive payroll or human resources data. Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing focused on payroll systems should be conducted to identify and remediate similar weaknesses across the enterprise infrastructure.