CVE-2014-6129 in Rational Team Concert
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Rational Jazz Team Server (JTS), as used in Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management 3.x and 4.x before 4.0.7 iFix4 and 5.x before 5.0.2 iFix2; Rational Quality Manager 2.x and 3.x before 3.0.1.6 iFix5, 4.x before 4.0.7 iFix4, and 5.x before 5.0.2 iFix2; Rational Team Concert 2.x and 3.x before 3.0.1.6 iFix5, 4.x before 4.0.7 iFix4, and 5.x before 5.0.2 iFix2; Rational DOORS Next Generation 4.x before 4.0.7 iFix4 and 5.x before 5.0.2 iFix2; Rational Requirements Composer 2.x and 3.x before 3.0.1.6 iFix5; and other products, allows remote authenticated users to delete the dashboards of arbitrary users via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/17/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6129 represents a critical authorization flaw within IBM Rational Jazz Team Server and related collaborative software products. This issue affects multiple IBM Rational products including Collaborative Lifecycle Management, Quality Manager, Team Concert, DOORS Next Generation, and Requirements Composer across various version ranges. The vulnerability stems from insufficient access control mechanisms that permit authenticated users to perform unauthorized dashboard deletion operations against other users' accounts. This represents a significant escalation of privilege vulnerability where legitimate users can exploit the system to remove critical dashboard content belonging to their colleagues or competitors, potentially disrupting workflow and information availability.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves improper input validation and access control checks within the dashboard management functionality of these Rational products. Attackers who have authenticated access to the system can leverage unspecified vectors to manipulate dashboard deletion commands, targeting arbitrary user accounts rather than just their own. This flaw operates at the application layer and typically requires a valid user account with appropriate permissions to initiate the attack, though the privilege escalation aspect allows for broader impact than initially intended. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and specifically manifests as an authorization bypass that enables unauthorized data manipulation. From an operational perspective, this vulnerability can be classified under the ATT&CK technique T1078 (Valid Accounts) and T1485 (Data Destruction) as it allows attackers to leverage legitimate credentials to cause data loss and disrupt collaboration workflows.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data loss, as dashboards in Rational collaborative environments often contain critical project information, metrics, and status updates that teams depend upon for decision making and progress tracking. When unauthorized users can delete dashboards, it creates a cascading effect that impacts team productivity, project visibility, and potentially compliance requirements within regulated environments. Organizations using these Rational products may experience disruption to their collaborative processes, as team members lose access to their configured dashboards and associated reporting data. The vulnerability particularly affects environments where multiple users share common projects or where user roles are not strictly enforced, creating opportunities for malicious actors to cause targeted disruption or information warfare against specific team members or departments. The impact is further amplified in large enterprise environments where dashboards serve as central reporting mechanisms for project management and stakeholder communication.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant IBM iFix updates for their specific product versions, reviewing and strengthening access controls, and implementing additional monitoring for dashboard deletion activities. System administrators should conduct thorough access control reviews to ensure that user permissions are appropriately scoped and that the principle of least privilege is maintained. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect anomalous dashboard deletion patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and access control implementation in enterprise collaboration platforms, particularly those handling sensitive project data and requiring multi-user coordination. Organizations should also consider implementing automated backup solutions for critical dashboard configurations to ensure rapid recovery in case of successful exploitation. Regular security assessments of collaborative platforms should be conducted to identify similar authorization flaws that could enable similar unauthorized operations across other system components.