CVE-2016-8917 in Sterling Order Management
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Sterling Order Management 9.2 - 9.5 is vulnerable to cross-site request forgery which could allow an attacker to execute malicious and unauthorized actions transmitted from a user that the website trusts. IBM Reference #: 2000943.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/01/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-8917 affects IBM Sterling Order Management versions 9.2 through 9.5, representing a critical cross-site request forgery flaw that undermines the application's security posture. This vulnerability resides within the web application's authentication and authorization mechanisms, specifically in how the system processes and validates user requests. The flaw allows malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its users, enabling unauthorized actions to be executed on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper request validation mechanisms within the IBM Sterling Order Management interface. When users interact with the application, legitimate requests are processed without sufficient verification of the request source or origin. Attackers can craft malicious web pages or embed malicious links that, when visited by an authenticated user, automatically submit requests to the vulnerable application. The system fails to implement anti-CSRF tokens or other protective measures that would validate the authenticity of requests originating from the legitimate application interface. This weakness directly maps to CWE-352, which categorizes cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities as a critical threat to web application security.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft or unauthorized access. An attacker who successfully exploits this flaw can perform critical operations such as modifying customer orders, changing system configurations, transferring funds, or even deleting sensitive business data. The attack vector typically involves social engineering tactics where users are tricked into visiting malicious websites or clicking on compromised links while authenticated to the Sterling Order Management system. This creates a significant risk for enterprises relying on the system for order processing, inventory management, and customer relationship management, as the unauthorized actions could result in substantial financial losses and operational disruptions.
Organizations using affected IBM Sterling Order Management versions should immediately implement comprehensive mitigations to address this vulnerability. The primary defense mechanism involves implementing robust anti-CSRF token validation across all state-changing operations within the application. These tokens must be generated per session and validated on every request to ensure that the request originates from the legitimate application interface rather than a malicious third-party site. Additionally, organizations should enforce strict referer header validation, implement SameSite cookie attributes, and ensure proper session management practices are in place. According to ATT&CK framework category T1531, this vulnerability represents a technique that adversaries use to bypass authentication mechanisms and maintain persistence within target environments, making immediate remediation essential for maintaining operational security and compliance with industry standards such as NIST SP 800-53 and ISO 27001 requirements for web application security controls.