CVE-2016-2952 in BigFix Remote Control
Summary
by MITRE
IBM BigFix Remote Control before 9.1.3 does not enable the HSTS protection mechanism, which makes it easier for remote attackers to obtain sensitive information by leveraging use of HTTP.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/04/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-2952 affects IBM BigFix Remote Control versions prior to 9.1.3, specifically addressing a critical security oversight in the HTTP protocol implementation. This flaw represents a failure to implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) protection mechanisms, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise sensitive information transmitted through the system. The absence of HSTS allows for man-in-the-middle attacks and session hijacking scenarios where attackers can intercept and manipulate communications between clients and servers.
The technical implementation flaw stems from the application's failure to include the HSTS header in HTTP responses, which is a critical security feature designed to enforce secure HTTPS connections. Without this protection, the system operates under the assumption that HTTP and HTTPS can be used interchangeably, allowing attackers to perform protocol downgrade attacks or intercept unencrypted traffic. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-319, which describes the weakness of exposing sensitive information through improper use of HTTP instead of HTTPS, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1071.004 for application layer protocol manipulation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it enables attackers to capture session tokens, credentials, and other sensitive data transmitted through the remote control interface. This weakness particularly affects organizations relying on IBM BigFix for endpoint management, as the compromised system could allow attackers to escalate privileges and gain unauthorized access to managed endpoints. The vulnerability is especially dangerous in enterprise environments where remote control capabilities are frequently used for system administration and security monitoring tasks.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2016-2952 require immediate implementation of the HSTS header configuration within the IBM BigFix Remote Control server components. Organizations should ensure that all HTTP responses include the Strict-Transport-Security header with appropriate parameters such as max-age, includeSubDomains, and preload directives. Additionally, the system should be upgraded to IBM BigFix Remote Control version 9.1.3 or later, which contains the necessary security patches. Network-level protections should include implementing proper SSL/TLS termination points and configuring web application firewalls to enforce secure communication protocols, while monitoring for any attempts to establish unencrypted connections or protocol downgrade attacks. The remediation process should also include comprehensive security testing to validate that HSTS is properly enforced across all application components and that no insecure HTTP endpoints remain accessible to unauthorized users.