CVE-2017-10146 in PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools component of Oracle PeopleSoft Products (subcomponent: Portal). Supported versions that are affected are 8.54 and 8.55. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools. While the vulnerability is in PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools accessible data as well as unauthorized read access to a subset of PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools accessible data and unauthorized ability to cause a partial denial of service (partial DOS) of PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 8.3 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/02/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-10146 resides within the PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools component, specifically affecting the Portal subcomponent of Oracle PeopleSoft Products. This security flaw impacts versions 8.54 and 8.55, representing a significant threat to organizations utilizing these enterprise applications. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that attackers can leverage it without requiring specialized skills or privileged access, making it particularly dangerous in production environments where such systems handle sensitive business data and processes. The attack vector operates through HTTP network access, eliminating the need for physical presence or complex initial access methods.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and authentication mechanisms within the PeopleTools Portal component. This flaw enables unauthenticated attackers to execute malicious operations against the affected systems, potentially gaining unauthorized access to critical business data and functionality. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond the immediate component, as successful exploitation can compromise additional products within the PeopleSoft ecosystem, creating cascading security risks across interconnected applications. The CVSS 3.0 score of 8.3 reflects the severity of potential consequences, with high impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability domains. This scoring indicates that attackers can achieve unauthorized data modifications, including updates, inserts, and deletes, while also gaining read access to sensitive information and potentially causing partial denial of service conditions.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents substantial risks to enterprise security posture and business continuity. Organizations running affected PeopleSoft versions face potential data breaches, unauthorized modifications to critical business processes, and service disruptions that could affect financial operations, human resources management, and other core business functions. The partial denial of service aspect means that even if complete system compromise doesn't occur, the availability of critical applications can be degraded, impacting business operations and potentially leading to financial losses. The vulnerability's impact is further amplified by its ability to affect multiple products within the PeopleSoft suite, suggesting that a single exploitation could compromise an entire enterprise application ecosystem rather than isolated components.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying Oracle's security patches and updates, implementing network segmentation to limit access to affected systems, and strengthening authentication mechanisms. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery) categories, indicating weak access control measures and potential CSRF vulnerabilities in the Portal implementation. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application) and T1071.004 (Application Layer Protocol: DNS), as attackers can exploit the HTTP-based interface to compromise systems. Additional defensive measures should include monitoring network traffic for suspicious HTTP requests, implementing web application firewalls, and conducting regular vulnerability assessments to identify similar weaknesses in other enterprise applications. The vulnerability underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and implementing robust security monitoring procedures to detect and respond to exploitation attempts in enterprise environments.