CVE-2016-0286 in Tivoli Business Service Manager
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager 6.1.0 before 6.1.0-TIV-BSM-FP0004 and 6.1.1 before 6.1.1-TIV-BSM-FP0004 allows remote authenticated users to obtain administrator passwords by leveraging unspecified privileges. BM X-Force ID: 111234.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/17/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-0286 affects IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager version 6.1.0 prior to fix pack 0004 and version 6.1.1 prior to fix pack 0004. This represents a critical security flaw that enables remote authenticated attackers to extract administrator passwords through unspecified privilege exploitation. The issue resides within the authentication and authorization mechanisms of the business service management platform, which is widely used for monitoring and managing enterprise business services. The vulnerability demonstrates a significant weakness in the privilege separation model that should prevent unauthorized access to sensitive administrative credentials.
The technical flaw involves an improper privilege handling mechanism that allows authenticated users to escalate their access level and retrieve administrator passwords. This weakness likely stems from insufficient input validation or inadequate access control checks within the application's authentication subsystem. The vulnerability operates under the common weakness enumeration CWE-284 which classifies improper access control issues, specifically focusing on inadequate privilege management and authentication bypass scenarios. Attackers can leverage their existing authenticated session to perform unauthorized operations that should be restricted to administrators only.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it directly compromises the security posture of organizations using IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager. Once exploited, attackers gain administrative privileges that provide complete control over the business service management platform, including the ability to modify service configurations, access sensitive business data, and potentially pivot to other systems within the network. This vulnerability particularly affects enterprises that rely on comprehensive business service monitoring and management, as the compromised administrative credentials could lead to widespread system compromise. The attack vector is remote and authenticated, meaning that an attacker only needs valid user credentials to initiate the attack, making it particularly dangerous in environments where user accounts may be compromised through other means.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided fix pack 0004 for both version 6.1.0 and 6.1.1 of IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager. Additionally, security teams should review and enforce strict access control policies, implement network segmentation to limit access to the business service manager systems, and conduct regular privilege audits. The vulnerability aligns with attack techniques documented in the mitre attack framework under privilege escalation and credential access categories. Organizations should also consider implementing additional monitoring and logging of administrative activities to detect potential exploitation attempts. Given the nature of the vulnerability, it is recommended to perform comprehensive security assessments of the entire IBM Tivoli ecosystem to identify any related weaknesses that may have been overlooked during initial vulnerability scanning.