CVE-2014-3041 in Emptoris Contract Management
Summary
by MITRE
SQL injection vulnerability in IBM Emptoris Contract Management 9.5.x before 9.5.0.6 iFix 10, 10.0.0.x before 10.0.0.1 iFix 10, 10.0.1.x before 10.0.1.4, and 10.0.2.x before 10.0.2.2 iFix 2 allows remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary SQL commands via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/05/2018
The CVE-2014-3041 vulnerability represents a critical SQL injection flaw within IBM Emptoris Contract Management software across multiple version streams including 9.5.x, 10.0.0.x, 10.0.1.x, and 10.0.2.x. This vulnerability resides in the authentication and authorization mechanisms of the contract management platform, which is widely deployed in enterprise environments for managing procurement contracts and vendor agreements. The flaw allows authenticated attackers to manipulate database queries through unspecified input vectors, potentially leading to complete database compromise and unauthorized access to sensitive contractual data. The vulnerability affects organizations that rely on Emptoris for managing their procurement processes, making it particularly concerning for enterprises with extensive contract management needs.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and parameter sanitization within the application's database interaction layers. When authenticated users submit requests to the system, the application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries. This design flaw creates opportunities for attackers to inject malicious SQL code that can be executed within the database context. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-89 as SQL injection, which represents one of the most prevalent and dangerous web application security flaws according to the CWE database. The specific nature of the input vectors remains unspecified in the CVE description, suggesting that multiple pathways within the application may be susceptible to manipulation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft, as successful exploitation could enable attackers to modify, delete, or extract sensitive contractual information, vendor details, pricing agreements, and other proprietary business data. Organizations utilizing Emptoris for contract management face significant risks including intellectual property exposure, financial data compromise, and potential regulatory violations under data protection laws such as gdpr or hipaa. The vulnerability's classification as remote authenticated access means that attackers need only valid credentials to exploit the flaw, reducing the attack surface and increasing the likelihood of successful compromise. This vulnerability directly maps to attack techniques described in the mitre ATT&CK framework under the T1071.004 category for application layer protocol manipulation and T1046 for network service discovery.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-supplied iFix patches for all affected version streams, specifically targeting the mentioned release numbers. Network segmentation and database access controls should be enhanced to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation. Implementing web application firewalls and input validation mechanisms can provide additional defense-in-depth layers. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other enterprise applications. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches in enterprise software environments and highlights the need for comprehensive vulnerability management programs. Organizations should also consider implementing database activity monitoring and anomaly detection systems to identify potential exploitation attempts. The incident underscores the necessity of following security best practices such as the principle of least privilege and input validation as recommended by industry standards including owasp top ten and iso 27001 security frameworks.