CVE-2017-1562 in Rational Quality Manager
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Rational Quality Manager and IBM Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management 5.0 through 5.0.2 and 6.0 through 6.0.5 are vulnerable to cross-site scripting. This vulnerability allows users to embed arbitrary JavaScript code in the Web UI thus altering the intended functionality potentially leading to credentials disclosure within a trusted session. IBM X-Force ID: 131761.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/03/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-1562 affects IBM Rational Quality Manager and IBM Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management versions 5.0 through 5.0.2 and 6.0 through 6.0.5, representing a critical cross-site scripting flaw that compromises web application security. This vulnerability exists within the web user interface components of these enterprise quality management platforms, which are widely used in software development lifecycle processes for requirements management, test management, and collaboration. The flaw stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the web application's handling of user-supplied data, particularly in areas where users can submit comments, descriptions, or other textual content that gets rendered back to other users within the application interface.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to inject malicious JavaScript code through crafted input fields within the application's web interface. When legitimate users view pages containing this malicious content, the injected scripts execute in their browser context, potentially compromising the session security and user privileges. The vulnerability specifically enables attackers to manipulate the intended functionality of the web application by executing arbitrary code in the context of authenticated users. This cross-site scripting attack vector can be exploited to steal session cookies, credentials, or other sensitive information transmitted within trusted sessions, effectively undermining the security model of the application's authentication and authorization mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft, as it can lead to complete session hijacking and privilege escalation within the application environment. Attackers can leverage this flaw to impersonate legitimate users, access restricted functionality, modify or delete data, and potentially gain access to other systems within the organization's network that are accessible through the compromised application. The vulnerability affects organizations that rely on these quality management tools for critical development processes, where unauthorized access could disrupt development workflows, compromise sensitive project data, and potentially impact compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that these applications are typically used by development teams, quality assurance professionals, and project managers who handle sensitive intellectual property and business-critical information.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including input validation controls, output encoding of user-supplied content, and regular security updates to address this vulnerability. The fix requires proper sanitization of all user inputs before rendering them in web pages, implementing Content Security Policy headers to prevent script execution, and ensuring that the application properly encodes output to prevent script injection. Additionally, security monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual activities that might indicate exploitation attempts, and user access controls should be reviewed to limit the potential impact of compromised accounts. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications, and represents a significant risk under the ATT&CK framework's initial access and credential access phases, particularly targeting the T1078 technique for valid accounts and T1531 for credential access through web application vulnerabilities.