CVE-2014-0832 in Financial Transaction Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in configuration-details screens in the OAC component in IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) 2.0 before 2.0.0.3 allow remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a crafted text value.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/20/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-0832 represents a significant security flaw within IBM Financial Transaction Manager version 2.0 prior to 2.0.0.3, specifically affecting the OAC component's configuration-details screens. This issue manifests as multiple cross-site scripting vulnerabilities that exploit the system's failure to properly sanitize user input, creating an avenue for malicious actors to execute arbitrary web scripts or HTML code within the context of authenticated user sessions. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it affects authenticated users, meaning that an attacker must first obtain valid credentials to exploit the flaw, but once achieved, the impact can be severe as the malicious code executes within the legitimate user's browser context.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within the OAC component's configuration interfaces. When users enter text values into configuration fields, the system fails to properly escape or filter special characters that could be interpreted as HTML or JavaScript code. This weakness aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities where web applications fail to properly validate or escape user-controllable data before incorporating it into dynamically generated web pages. The flaw allows attackers to inject malicious payloads that persist in the configuration screens, making them particularly dangerous as they can affect multiple users who view these screens.
From an operational perspective, the impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft or defacement. Since the affected system is part of a financial transaction manager, successful exploitation could enable attackers to manipulate transaction configurations, potentially leading to unauthorized financial transactions, data manipulation, or the creation of backdoors within the financial processing environment. The authenticated nature of the attack means that attackers need to have legitimate user credentials, but this requirement does not prevent the vulnerability from being exploited in environments where credential theft occurs through phishing, password reuse, or other means. The vulnerability affects the configuration management aspect of the system, which could provide attackers with insights into transaction processing workflows and potentially enable more sophisticated attacks against the broader financial infrastructure.
The exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566, which covers social engineering tactics including credential access through phishing and other methods. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to establish persistent access to financial transaction systems by injecting malicious scripts that capture user credentials or redirect users to attacker-controlled sites. The configuration-details screens are particularly valuable targets because they often contain sensitive operational information about transaction processing, system parameters, and user access controls that could be leveraged to escalate privileges or discover additional attack vectors within the financial transaction environment.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patches that address this vulnerability in IBM Financial Transaction Manager 2.0.0.3 and later versions. Additionally, network segmentation and monitoring of configuration management interfaces can help detect anomalous activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. Input validation controls should be enhanced to ensure all user-entered data is properly sanitized before being stored or displayed in configuration screens. The implementation of Content Security Policy (CSP) headers can provide an additional layer of protection against script injection attacks by restricting the sources from which scripts can be loaded and executed within the browser context of the affected applications. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other components of the financial transaction processing infrastructure that might be susceptible to similar cross-site scripting attacks.