CVE-2015-2018 in Integration Bus
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Integration Bus 9 and 10 before 10.0.0.1 and WebSphere Message Broker 7 before 7.0.0.8 and 8 before 8.0.0.7 do not ensure that the correct security profile is selected, which allows remote authenticated users to obtain sensitive information via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/27/2017
This vulnerability affects IBM Integration Bus versions 9 and 10 before 10.0.0.1 and WebSphere Message Broker versions 7 before 7.0.0.8 and 8 before 8.0.0.7, representing a critical security flaw in enterprise messaging infrastructure. The issue stems from improper security profile selection mechanisms that fail to validate or enforce correct authentication contexts during message processing operations. This weakness creates an environment where authenticated attackers can exploit the system's security controls to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information through unspecified attack vectors. The vulnerability specifically targets the authentication and authorization mechanisms that should ensure proper security context enforcement throughout the messaging pipeline.
The technical flaw manifests as a failure in the security profile validation process, where the system does not properly verify that the appropriate security credentials and profiles are applied during message handling operations. This allows attackers who have already established authentication credentials to potentially bypass security controls and access data that should be restricted based on security profiles. The vulnerability's impact extends across multiple IBM messaging products, indicating a systemic issue in how these platforms handle security context management and profile enforcement. This type of flaw falls under the CWE-284 access control weakness category, specifically addressing improper access control mechanisms that allow unauthorized information disclosure.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to enterprise environments that rely on IBM Integration Bus and WebSphere Message Broker for critical messaging operations. Attackers can leverage this weakness to obtain sensitive information that may include proprietary data, customer information, or system configuration details that could be used for further attacks. The remote nature of the exploit means that authenticated users can potentially access information from systems they should not be authorized to view, creating a potential data breach scenario. The vulnerability's presence in multiple versions of these products suggests that organizations may need to assess their entire messaging infrastructure for similar security gaps.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant security patches provided by IBM for the affected versions of Integration Bus and WebSphere Message Broker. Security profile validation should be enhanced through configuration reviews to ensure proper enforcement of access controls and authentication mechanisms. Network segmentation and monitoring should be implemented to detect unauthorized access attempts and potential exploitation of this vulnerability. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this type of vulnerability under privilege escalation and credential access techniques, where attackers can leverage existing authenticated sessions to obtain additional privileges or information. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other enterprise messaging systems and ensure comprehensive protection against information disclosure threats.