CVE-2015-0142 in OpenPages GRC Platform
Summary
by MITRE
IBM OpenPages GRC Platform 6.2 before IF7, 6.2.1 before 6.2.1.1 IF5, 7.0 before FP4, and 7.1 before FP1 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (maintenance-mode transition and data-storage outage) by calling the System Administration Mode function.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/18/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-0142 affects IBM OpenPages GRC Platform versions prior to specific maintenance releases, creating a significant security weakness that can be exploited by authenticated attackers to disrupt system operations. This issue resides within the platform's administrative functionality and specifically targets the System Administration Mode function, which serves as a critical control mechanism for system maintenance and configuration management. The vulnerability represents a serious concern for organizations relying on this governance, risk, and compliance platform, as it can lead to complete system unavailability during critical operations.
The technical flaw manifests when authenticated users leverage the System Administration Mode function to trigger a maintenance-mode transition that results in unintended system behavior. This particular vulnerability falls under the category of improper handling of system transitions and administrative functions, which aligns with CWE-284 access control weaknesses and CWE-400 resource management errors. The exploitation occurs through legitimate administrative interfaces, making it particularly dangerous as it bypasses traditional network-based attack vectors and leverages existing user credentials. Attackers can manipulate the system's administrative state to force a transition that causes the platform to enter maintenance mode, effectively shutting down data storage operations and rendering the system inaccessible to legitimate users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can cause complete data-storage outages that affect the organization's governance and compliance operations. When the system enters maintenance mode due to the flawed administrative function, it typically results in the suspension of all data processing activities, database connections, and user access to the platform's core functionalities. This disruption can have cascading effects on business processes that depend on continuous access to risk management and compliance data, potentially leading to regulatory non-compliance issues and operational downtime that can last until manual intervention restores normal system operations. The vulnerability affects multiple versions of the platform, indicating a widespread issue that requires comprehensive patching across different release branches.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant IBM security patches and hotfixes that address this specific vulnerability in the OpenPages GRC Platform. System administrators should also consider implementing additional access controls and monitoring for administrative function calls to detect anomalous usage patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The remediation process should follow IBM's official security advisory procedures and include thorough testing in development environments before deploying patches to production systems. Security teams should also review and strengthen their administrative access controls to limit the number of users with elevated privileges that can trigger system transitions. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper administrative function validation and the potential for authenticated users to cause significant operational disruption through carefully crafted system interactions.