CVE-2015-4989 in Tealeaf Customer Experience
Summary
by MITRE
The portal in IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience before 8.7.1.8814, 8.8 before 8.8.0.9026, 9.0.0, 9.0.0A, 9.0.1 before 9.0.1.1083, 9.0.1A before 9.0.1.5073, 9.0.2 before 9.0.2.1095, and 9.0.2A before 9.0.2.5144 allows remote attackers to read arbitrary charts by specifying an internal chart name.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/26/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-4989 affects IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience portal components across multiple version ranges, representing a critical access control flaw that enables unauthorized data exfiltration. This issue stems from insufficient input validation and authorization checks within the chart retrieval mechanism, allowing remote attackers to bypass normal access restrictions and obtain sensitive analytical data that should be protected. The vulnerability specifically impacts the portal functionality that serves chart data to authorized users, creating a pathway for malicious actors to access internal chart names and retrieve arbitrary chart information without proper authentication or authorization.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability resides in the portal's chart serving component where internal chart identifiers are processed without adequate validation of user permissions or access controls. Attackers can exploit this weakness by directly requesting chart resources using specific internal chart names, bypassing the normal user interface restrictions that would typically prevent access to sensitive data. This flaw operates at the application layer and leverages the lack of proper authorization enforcement during chart data retrieval operations, making it particularly dangerous as it can expose detailed customer experience analytics, performance metrics, and other sensitive business intelligence that organizations rely on for strategic decision making.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it can lead to comprehensive intelligence gathering about customer behavior patterns, system performance issues, and business operations. Organizations using affected versions of IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience face significant risks including competitive intelligence theft, regulatory compliance violations, and potential reputational damage from unauthorized data access. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers can leverage this weakness from outside the organization's network, making detection and prevention more challenging. This exposure can result in substantial financial losses through competitive disadvantage, regulatory penalties, and potential legal consequences related to data protection violations.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2015-4989 require immediate implementation of the vendor-provided security patches and updates for all affected IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience versions. Organizations should also implement network-level restrictions to limit access to the portal components and establish monitoring for unusual chart access patterns. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control issues, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1071.004 for application layer protocol evasion. Additional defensive measures include implementing proper input validation for chart name parameters, enforcing strict access controls for internal chart resources, and conducting comprehensive security testing of portal components. Organizations should also review their access control policies and ensure that all chart data access is properly authenticated and authorized through established security frameworks.