CVE-2014-3026 in Maximo Industry Solutions
Summary
by MITRE
CRLF injection vulnerability in IBM Maximo Asset Management 7.5 through 7.5.0.6, and 7.5 through 7.5.0.3 and 7.5.1 through 7.5.1.2 for SmartCloud Control Desk, allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary HTTP headers and conduct HTTP response splitting attacks via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/06/2018
The CVE-2014-3026 vulnerability represents a critical CRLF injection flaw discovered in IBM Maximo Asset Management and SmartCloud Control Desk products within specific version ranges. This vulnerability resides in the application's handling of user input within HTTP headers, creating a pathway for malicious actors to manipulate the HTTP response protocol. The flaw specifically affects IBM Maximo versions 7.5 through 7.5.0.6 and SmartCloud Control Desk versions 7.5 through 7.5.0.3 and 7.5.1 through 7.5.1.2, making these product iterations particularly susceptible to exploitation. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-113, which addresses improper neutralization of CRLF characters within HTTP headers, a fundamental weakness in web application security. This type of vulnerability directly enables HTTP response splitting attacks, where an attacker can inject malicious headers into HTTP responses, potentially leading to various security breaches including session hijacking, cross-site scripting, and cache poisoning.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when authenticated users submit malicious input containing CRLF sequences that are not properly sanitized before being included in HTTP headers. These sequences, typically represented as carriage return and line feed characters, allow attackers to inject additional headers into the HTTP response stream. When the application processes user input without adequate validation or encoding, it can inadvertently include these malicious sequences in HTTP headers, causing the web server to treat subsequent content as separate HTTP responses. This creates a dangerous condition where attackers can inject arbitrary headers and potentially redirect users to malicious sites or inject content into web applications. The vulnerability's impact is amplified by the fact that it requires only authenticated access, meaning that users with legitimate credentials can exploit this weakness without requiring special privileges or complex attack vectors. The attack vector operates through the application's HTTP response handling mechanisms, where input validation fails to properly sanitize user-supplied data before it enters the HTTP header generation process.
The operational impact of CVE-2014-3026 extends beyond simple header injection, as it enables sophisticated attack patterns that can compromise entire web applications and user sessions. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to perform session fixation, where they inject malicious headers to manipulate session tokens and gain unauthorized access to user accounts. The vulnerability also enables cache poisoning attacks where malicious content is injected into web caches, potentially affecting multiple users. Additionally, this weakness can facilitate cross-site scripting attacks by injecting malicious JavaScript code through manipulated HTTP headers, or enable open redirect attacks that can redirect users to phishing sites. The vulnerability's presence in asset management systems like IBM Maximo is particularly concerning because these applications often handle sensitive business data and may be integrated with other enterprise systems, creating potential attack paths that could compromise larger network infrastructures. Organizations using these vulnerable versions face significant risk of data breaches, unauthorized access to critical business information, and potential regulatory compliance violations.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability, beginning with applying the vendor-provided patches and updates for IBM Maximo Asset Management and SmartCloud Control Desk. The recommended approach includes implementing strict input validation and sanitization mechanisms that filter out CRLF sequences from user-supplied data before processing. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious HTTP header patterns, particularly those containing CRLF sequences. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive security assessments of their web applications to identify other potential injection vulnerabilities, as this flaw often indicates broader input validation weaknesses. The mitigation strategy should align with ATT&CK framework techniques related to command and control, specifically targeting T1071.004 for application layer protocol: DNS and T1566 for credential access through session manipulation. Regular security monitoring and log analysis should be enhanced to detect anomalous HTTP header patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit the impact of potential exploitation, ensuring that authenticated users have appropriate privilege levels and that sensitive operations are protected through additional security layers. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of proper input validation in web applications and the need for continuous security testing to identify and remediate such weaknesses before they can be exploited by malicious actors.