CVE-2016-5490 in FLEXCUBE Universal Banking
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking component in Oracle Financial Services Applications 11.4.0 allows local users to affect confidentiality via vectors related to INFRA.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/26/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-5490 resides within Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking, a critical component of Oracle Financial Services Applications version 11.4.0. This financial services application suite serves as the backbone for banking operations across numerous institutions globally, making the discovery of such a weakness particularly concerning from a cybersecurity perspective. The vulnerability specifically affects the INFRA module within the FLEXCUBE framework, which handles infrastructure-related functionalities essential for system operations and data management.
This unspecified vulnerability represents a local privilege escalation issue that allows attackers with local system access to compromise the confidentiality of sensitive data. The nature of the flaw suggests a weakness in how the system handles authentication, authorization, or data protection mechanisms within the INFRA component. The vulnerability's classification as local indicates that exploitation requires prior access to the target system, either through legitimate credentials or through other initial compromise vectors. However, once achieved, the flaw could enable attackers to access confidential information that should remain protected within the banking application's architecture.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it could potentially allow attackers to access sensitive financial information, customer data, transaction records, and other proprietary banking information. This compromise of confidentiality could lead to significant financial losses, regulatory violations, and reputational damage for affected institutions. The vulnerability affects organizations that rely on Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking for their core banking operations, which includes commercial banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions managing critical customer data and transactional information.
From a cybersecurity framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and potentially CWE-310 (Cryptographic Issues) depending on the specific implementation details. The ATT&CK framework would categorize this under privilege escalation techniques, specifically T1068 (Local Port Forwarding) or T1547.001 (Registry Run Keys/Startup Folder) depending on how the local access was initially obtained. Organizations should implement comprehensive network segmentation to limit local access points and ensure that only authorized personnel have access to critical banking systems. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in financial applications. Additionally, implementing robust monitoring and logging mechanisms can help detect unauthorized access attempts and potential exploitation of such vulnerabilities. The remediation approach should involve applying Oracle's official security patches and updates as soon as they become available, while also conducting thorough security reviews of the FLEXCUBE implementation to identify any additional weaknesses that might exist within the broader financial services application ecosystem.