CVE-2017-1539 in Business Process Manager
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Business Process Manager 7.5, 8.0, and 8.5 is vulnerable to privilege escalation by not properly distinguishing internal group memberships from user registry group memberships. By manipulating LDAP group membership an attack might gain privileged access. IBM X-Force ID: 130807.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/14/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-1539 affects IBM Business Process Manager versions 7.5, 8.0, and 8.5, representing a critical privilege escalation flaw that stems from inadequate group membership validation within the authentication and authorization framework. This vulnerability specifically exploits the system's failure to properly distinguish between internal group memberships and those derived from user registry sources, creating a significant security gap that adversaries can leverage to elevate their privileges.
The technical flaw manifests in the application's insufficient validation mechanisms that process LDAP group membership information during authentication processes. When LDAP groups are manipulated or improperly configured, the system fails to adequately verify whether group memberships originate from internal system sources or external registry systems. This lack of proper segregation allows attackers to craft malicious LDAP group memberships that bypass normal access controls, potentially enabling them to assume elevated privileges within the business process manager environment. The vulnerability directly relates to CWE-284 which addresses improper access control and improper privilege management within software systems.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a substantial risk to organizations utilizing IBM Business Process Manager, as successful exploitation could allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive business processes, administrative functions, and potentially compromise the entire business process management infrastructure. The attack vector specifically targets the authentication and authorization mechanisms that govern user access to various system components, potentially enabling adversaries to perform actions such as creating or modifying business processes, accessing confidential data, or manipulating workflow executions. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning given that IBM Business Process Manager typically operates within enterprise environments where it manages critical business workflows and processes.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including thorough review and hardening of LDAP configurations, implementation of proper group membership validation controls, and enhanced monitoring of authentication events for suspicious group membership changes. Security teams should also consider implementing additional access control measures beyond the default configurations, ensuring that internal and external group memberships are properly segregated and validated. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and privilege escalation through legitimate system access. Regular security assessments of authentication and authorization configurations, along with proper patch management, remain essential defensive measures against this and similar privilege escalation vulnerabilities.