CVE-2013-6867 in Adaptive Server Enterprise
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) 15.7 before 15.7 SP50 or 15.7 SP100 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/10/2022
SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise represents a critical enterprise database management system that serves as the backbone for numerous financial institutions and large-scale business applications. The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-6867 affects version 15.7 prior to service pack 50 or 15.7 SP100, creating a significant security gap that remote attackers can exploit to disrupt system operations. This database server implementation handles complex enterprise workloads including transaction processing, data warehousing, and mission-critical business applications across various industries. The unspecified nature of the vulnerability vectors suggests that multiple attack surfaces within the ASE architecture could potentially be leveraged by malicious actors to execute denial of service attacks.
The technical flaw manifests as a weakness in the ASE server's processing mechanisms that can be triggered remotely without requiring authentication or elevated privileges. This characteristic places the vulnerability within the realm of remotely exploitable flaws that can be executed from outside the network perimeter, making it particularly dangerous for enterprise environments where database servers are often exposed to external network traffic. The vulnerability's potential to cause denial of service indicates that the affected ASE versions may experience crashes, restarts, or complete unavailability of database services when exploited. From a cybersecurity perspective, this represents a critical weakness that could impact business continuity and data availability for organizations relying on SAP ASE for their core operations.
The operational impact of CVE-2013-6867 extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise business operations across multiple domains including financial transactions, customer data management, and enterprise reporting systems. Organizations utilizing ASE 15.7 versions prior to the mentioned service packs face significant risk of operational downtime that could result in financial losses, regulatory compliance issues, and damage to customer relationships. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers can potentially target these systems from anywhere on the internet without requiring physical access or insider knowledge of the internal network structure. This characteristic aligns with ATT&CK framework tactics related to privilege escalation and denial of service operations, where adversaries seek to disrupt system availability to achieve their objectives.
Security professionals should consider implementing immediate mitigation strategies including network segmentation, firewall rules to restrict access to ASE ports, and monitoring for unusual connection patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's classification as unspecified suggests that it may involve multiple underlying mechanisms including buffer overflows, memory corruption, or improper input validation within the ASE server components. Organizations should prioritize upgrading to SAP ASE 15.7 SP50 or SP100 service packs to address the vulnerability, as these releases contain the necessary patches and code modifications to prevent exploitation. Additionally, implementing comprehensive monitoring solutions that track database server performance and availability metrics can help detect potential exploitation attempts before they result in complete service disruption.
From a compliance standpoint, this vulnerability could potentially violate industry standards including pci dss requirements for protecting cardholder data, as database availability is critical for maintaining transaction processing capabilities. The vulnerability may also impact iso 27001 compliance requirements for information security management, particularly in areas related to system availability and business continuity planning. Organizations should conduct thorough risk assessments to determine the potential impact of this vulnerability on their specific operational environments, considering factors such as database server exposure levels, criticality of applications relying on ASE, and existing security controls in place. The remediation process should include not only patch deployment but also validation testing to ensure that the service packs do not introduce compatibility issues with existing applications or database configurations.