CVE-2015-4946 in Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management
Summary
by MITRE
Rational LifeCycle Project Administration in Jazz Team Server in IBM Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) 3.x and 4.x before 4.0.7 IF9, 5.x before 5.0.2 IF9, and 6.x before 6.0.1; Rational Quality Manager (RQM) 3.x before 3.0.1.6 IF7, 4.x before 4.0.7 IF9, 5.x before 5.0.2 IF9, and 6.x before 6.0.1; Rational Team Concert (RTC) 3.x before 3.0.1.6 IF7, 4.x before 4.0.7 IF9, 5.x before 5.0.2 IF9, and 6.x before 6.0.1; Rational Requirements Composer (RRC) 3.x before 3.0.1.6 IF7 and 4.x before 4.0.7 IF9; Rational DOORS Next Generation (RDNG) 4.x before 4.0.7 IF9, 5.x before 5.0.2 IF9, and 6.x before 6.0.1; Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager (RELM) 4.x through 4.0.7, 5.x through 5.0.2, and 6.x before 6.0.1; Rational Rhapsody Design Manager (DM) 4.x through 4.0.7, 5.x through 5.0.2, and 6.x before 6.0.1; and Rational Software Architect Design Manager (DM) 4.x through 4.0.7, 5.x through 5.0.2, and 6.x before 6.0.1 allows local users to bypass intended access re strictions via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/26/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-4946 represents a critical access control flaw within IBM's collaborative lifecycle management suite, specifically affecting multiple products including Rational Team Concert, Rational Quality Manager, and Rational Requirements Composer. This issue resides in the Rational LifeCycle Project Administration component of Jazz Team Server, which serves as the central administration hub for managing project lifecycles across various IBM Rational products. The vulnerability affects versions 3.x through 6.x of these products, spanning multiple generations of IBM's lifecycle management offerings. The flaw manifests as a local privilege escalation mechanism that allows unauthorized local users to bypass intended access restrictions, effectively undermining the security model that governs project administration and user permissions within these enterprise tools.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user permissions and access controls within the project administration subsystem. According to CWE classification, this vulnerability maps to CWE-284 Access Control Issues, specifically representing improper access control mechanisms that allow local users to elevate their privileges beyond what is authorized. The unspecified vectors suggest that the flaw could be exploited through multiple pathways including but not limited to improper input validation, weak session management, or flawed permission checking routines within the Jazz Team Server architecture. The vulnerability's impact extends across the entire IBM Rational CLM ecosystem, affecting not just individual products but the interconnected nature of the collaborative environment where multiple tools share common administrative frameworks.
Operationally, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations utilizing IBM Rational products for software development lifecycle management. Local users who can exploit this flaw gain unauthorized access to project administration functions, potentially allowing them to modify project configurations, access restricted data, manipulate user permissions, or interfere with ongoing development processes. The implications are particularly severe in enterprise environments where multiple developers and stakeholders collaborate on critical projects, as this vulnerability could enable malicious insiders or compromised local accounts to undermine the integrity of the entire development lifecycle. Organizations may experience unauthorized data access, project manipulation, or disruption of development workflows that could impact compliance requirements and regulatory adherence.
The exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK techniques categorized under privilege escalation and defense evasion, particularly leveraging local persistence mechanisms and access control bypass methods. Security teams should implement immediate mitigation strategies including applying the vendor-provided patches and updates for all affected versions, implementing strict access controls for local system accounts, and monitoring for unauthorized access attempts. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive security assessments of their Rational CLM implementations to identify and remediate any additional access control weaknesses. The vulnerability underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches across enterprise software ecosystems and highlights the need for robust security monitoring within collaborative development environments where multiple tools share common administrative infrastructure. Regular security audits and privilege reviews should be implemented to prevent unauthorized access to critical project administration functions and to ensure that access controls function as intended within the IBM Rational collaborative lifecycle management framework.