CVE-2013-6732 in Cognos Business Intelligence
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the server in IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) 8.4.1, 10.1 before IF6, 10.1.1 before IF5, 10.2 before IF7, 10.2.1 before IF4, and 10.2.1.1 before IF4 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via an unspecified parameter.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/21/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-6732 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within IBM Cognos Business Intelligence software across multiple versions including 8.4.1, 10.1 through IF5, 10.1.1 through IF4, 10.2 through IF6, 10.2.1 through IF3, and 10.2.1.1 through IF3. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, specifically representing a server-side XSS attack vector that enables remote code execution through web script injection. The flaw exists in the server component of the business intelligence platform, making it particularly dangerous as it affects the core processing capabilities rather than just client-side interfaces.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through an unspecified parameter within the server-side processing logic of IBM Cognos BI. Attackers can inject malicious web scripts or HTML content that gets executed in the context of other users' browsers when they access affected pages or reports. This injection typically occurs through user input fields, URL parameters, or API endpoints that do not properly sanitize or validate incoming data before processing. The vulnerability's impact is amplified because IBM Cognos BI systems often handle sensitive business data and user credentials, making successful exploitation potentially devastating for organizations relying on these platforms for critical business intelligence operations.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risks for enterprise environments where IBM Cognos BI is deployed for reporting, analytics, and business intelligence purposes. The remote attack vector means that malicious actors can exploit this weakness without requiring physical access to the system or prior authentication. Successful exploitation could lead to session hijacking, data theft, unauthorized access to sensitive business intelligence reports, and potential lateral movement within the network. The impact extends beyond immediate data compromise as attackers could use this vulnerability as a foothold for more extensive attacks, particularly in environments where Cognos BI systems are integrated with other enterprise applications and databases.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided patches and updates for all affected IBM Cognos BI versions, implementing input validation and output encoding mechanisms, and configuring web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious script injection attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper data sanitization practices and input validation as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten security principles. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive security assessments of their Cognos BI deployments, review user permissions and access controls, and implement network segmentation to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under the T1059.007 technique for Scripting, highlighting the need for robust application-level defenses against malicious script injection attacks that could be leveraged for privilege escalation and persistent access within enterprise environments.