CVE-2016-0346 in Cognos Business Intelligence
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in IBM Cognos Business Intelligence 10.2 before IF20, 10.2.1 before IF17, 10.2.1.1 before IF16, 10.2.2 before IF12, and 10.1.1 before IF19 allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a crafted URL.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/26/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-0346 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within IBM Cognos Business Intelligence software across multiple versions including 10.2 before IF20, 10.2.1 before IF17, 10.2.1.1 before IF16, 10.2.2 before IF12, and 10.1.1 before IF19. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, which is classified as a code injection attack that allows attackers to execute malicious scripts in the context of other users' browsers. The flaw specifically resides in the application's handling of crafted URLs, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited through web-based attack vectors.
The technical nature of this vulnerability enables remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML content through manipulated URL parameters. This occurs because the application fails to properly validate or sanitize user-supplied input before rendering it in web responses. When a user accesses a specially crafted URL containing malicious script code, the application processes this input without adequate protection mechanisms, resulting in the execution of the injected code within the victim's browser context. The authentication requirement means that attackers must already have valid credentials to exploit this vulnerability, though this does not significantly reduce the risk given that credential compromise can occur through various means including phishing, credential theft, or insider threats.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution as it can lead to complete session hijacking, data theft, and privilege escalation within the application. Attackers could potentially access sensitive business intelligence data, manipulate reports, or even gain access to underlying database systems if proper security boundaries are not maintained. The vulnerability affects the core business intelligence functionality of IBM Cognos, which typically handles sensitive corporate data including financial reports, operational metrics, and strategic business insights. This makes the potential damage substantial as successful exploitation could compromise critical business information and undermine organizational security posture.
Organizations using affected IBM Cognos versions should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided patches and updates released in the respective IF (Interim Fix) releases. Network-based mitigations such as web application firewalls can provide additional protection layers, though these should not be considered complete solutions. Input validation and output encoding should be enforced at multiple levels within the application architecture to prevent similar issues. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under T1566 - Phishing and T1059 - Command and Scripting Interpreter, highlighting the multi-stage nature of exploitation that typically involves initial access through phishing or credential compromise followed by execution of malicious code. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be implemented to identify similar issues in other components of the business intelligence infrastructure, as this vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input sanitization in web applications handling sensitive data.