CVE-2015-7468 in Jazz Reporting Service
Summary
by MITRE
Report Builder in IBM Jazz Reporting Service (JRS) 5.x before 5.0.2-Rational-CLM-ifix011 and 6.0 before 6.0.0-Rational-CLM-ifix005 allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended restrictions on administrator tasks via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/17/2018
The vulnerability CVE-2015-7468 affects IBM Jazz Reporting Service (JRS) versions 5.x before 5.0.2-Rational-CLM-ifix011 and 6.0 before 6.0.0-Rational-CLM-ifix005, representing a critical authorization bypass flaw that undermines the security controls designed to protect administrator tasks within the IBM Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management platform. This issue specifically targets the Report Builder component, which serves as a critical interface for generating and managing reports within the JRS environment. The vulnerability allows remote authenticated users to circumvent intended access controls and perform administrative operations that should be restricted to authorized administrators only, creating a significant risk to system integrity and data security.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient authorization checks within the Report Builder functionality of IBM Jazz Reporting Service, which operates under the broader IBM Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management framework. This authorization bypass occurs through unspecified vectors that likely involve improper validation of user permissions or flawed session management mechanisms. The vulnerability exists in the authentication and authorization layers of the application, where the system fails to properly verify that users possess the necessary administrative privileges before allowing access to sensitive administrative functions. This flaw falls under the category of improper access control as defined by CWE-285, which specifically addresses scenarios where systems fail to properly enforce access restrictions for privileged operations.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe risk to organizations utilizing IBM Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management platforms, as it enables authenticated attackers to escalate their privileges and perform administrative actions without proper authorization. The impact extends beyond simple unauthorized access to include potential data manipulation, system configuration changes, and access to sensitive organizational information. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to modify reporting configurations, access restricted reports, or potentially compromise the entire JRS environment. The remote nature of the attack vector means that threat actors do not need physical access to the system, and the requirement for only authentication (not exploitation of additional vulnerabilities) makes this flaw particularly dangerous. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1484 for elevation of privileges, as it allows attackers to gain unauthorized administrative capabilities through legitimate authenticated sessions.
Organizations should immediately implement the vendor-provided security fixes and patches for IBM Jazz Reporting Service versions 5.0.2-Rational-CLM-ifix011 and 6.0.0-Rational-CLM-ifix005 to address this vulnerability. System administrators should conduct thorough security assessments to identify any potential exploitation attempts and monitor access logs for suspicious activities related to administrative functions. Additional mitigations include implementing network segmentation to limit access to JRS components, enforcing strict access controls through firewalls, and regularly auditing user permissions to ensure that only authorized personnel maintain administrative privileges. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper authorization controls in enterprise software systems and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing of administrative interfaces. Organizations utilizing IBM Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management should also consider implementing additional monitoring and alerting mechanisms to detect unauthorized access attempts to administrative functions and maintain up-to-date security configurations across all deployed instances.