CVE-2013-6741 in Maximo Asset Management
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Maximo Asset Management 7.x before 7.1.1.7 LAFIX.20140319-0837 and 7.5.x before 7.5.0.5 IFIX006; SmartCloud Control Desk 7.x before 7.5.0.3 and 7.5.1.x before 7.5.1.2; and Tivoli IT Asset Management for IT, Tivoli Service Request Manager, Maximo Service Desk, and Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB) 7.x before 7.1.1.7 LAFIX.20140319-0837 allow remote authenticated users to obtain potentially sensitive stack-trace information by triggering a Birt error.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/03/2018
This vulnerability affects multiple IBM asset management and service management products including Maximo Asset Management, SmartCloud Control Desk, and various Tivoli products. The flaw resides in how these applications handle Birt reporting errors, which can expose sensitive stack-trace information to remote authenticated attackers. The vulnerability impacts versions prior to specific fix levels, with IBM releasing targeted IFIX patches to address the issue. Stack-trace information can reveal critical system details including file paths, class names, method signatures, and internal application structures that could aid attackers in planning more sophisticated attacks. The exposure occurs when Birt reporting components encounter errors during report generation, causing the system to return detailed error messages containing the stack-trace information to the requesting user.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient error handling within the Birt reporting framework integrated into these IBM products. When a Birt error occurs during report processing, the system fails to sanitize the error output properly before returning it to the authenticated user. This improper error handling follows common security pitfalls where applications provide excessive debugging information to users, violating the principle of minimal information disclosure. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-209 as "Information Exposure Through an Error Message" and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1211 for "Exploitation for Defense Evasion" and T1068 for "Exploitation for Privilege Escalation" when combined with other attack vectors. The authenticated nature of the attack means that an attacker must already have valid credentials, but this lowers the barrier to exploitation compared to completely unauthenticated attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as the exposed stack-trace data can serve as a blueprint for attackers to identify potential attack surfaces within the application. The detailed technical information revealed through stack-traces can help attackers understand the application's architecture, identify version-specific vulnerabilities, and potentially discover additional weaknesses in the system. This information disclosure can be particularly damaging in enterprise environments where the stack-trace might reveal internal network structures, database connection details, or other sensitive infrastructure information. The vulnerability's presence in multiple IBM products across different product lines indicates a systemic issue in how IBM handles error reporting within their Birt integration components.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately apply the appropriate IFIX patches released by IBM for their specific product versions. The patches address the root cause by implementing proper error handling that sanitizes error messages before they are returned to authenticated users. Security teams should also implement network monitoring to detect unusual patterns of authenticated access that might indicate exploitation attempts, as attackers may use the exposed information to plan more targeted attacks. Additionally, organizations should review their application logging configurations to ensure that detailed error information is not being written to logs in a way that could expose sensitive information. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and error handling practices, as recommended in the OWASP Top Ten and ISO/IEC 27001 security standards, particularly in areas where external users can interact with application components that may generate errors.