CVE-2017-16854 in Open Ticket Request System
Summary
by MITRE
In Open Ticket Request System (OTRS) through 3.3.20, 4 through 4.0.26, 5 through 5.0.24, and 6 through 6.0.1, an attacker who is logged in as a customer can use the ticket search form to disclose internal article information of their customer tickets.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/17/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-16854 affects the Open Ticket Request System OTRS, a widely used customer service management platform that handles ticketing and communication workflows for organizations. This issue spans multiple versions of the software including 3.3.20, 4.0.26, 5.0.24, and 6.0.1, indicating a persistent flaw in the system's access control mechanisms. The vulnerability specifically targets customer accounts that have legitimate login access to the system, making it particularly concerning for organizations that rely on customer-facing ticketing interfaces. The flaw allows authenticated users to exploit the ticket search functionality to gain unauthorized visibility into internal article details associated with their own tickets, creating a significant information disclosure risk.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control enforcement within the ticket search component of OTRS. When customers perform searches using the ticket search form, the system fails to properly validate or sanitize the search parameters, allowing attackers to manipulate the query to access internal article information that should remain restricted to authorized personnel only. This represents a classic case of inadequate privilege enforcement where the system does not adequately distinguish between customer-facing and internal-only ticket data. The vulnerability manifests through the search interface, where crafted queries can bypass normal access controls and reveal sensitive internal communications, notes, and administrative information that customers should not be able to access. This type of flaw aligns with CWE-200, which addresses improper restriction of information exposure, and demonstrates how authentication bypasses can occur through manipulation of application interfaces.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it can enable attackers to gather intelligence about internal processes, system configurations, and potentially sensitive customer data that may be contained within internal ticket communications. An attacker can systematically explore their own tickets to discover patterns in how the organization handles support requests, identify system vulnerabilities, and potentially gain insights into other customers' issues or internal business processes. This information can be leveraged for social engineering attacks, competitive intelligence gathering, or as a stepping stone for further exploitation. The vulnerability particularly affects organizations that store sensitive information within internal ticket articles, as customers may inadvertently expose confidential data through their own ticket interactions. The impact is compounded by the fact that this vulnerability exists across multiple versions of OTRS, suggesting a fundamental flaw in the system's architecture rather than a one-time coding error.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including applying the vendor-provided patches and updates for all affected OTRS versions to address the access control flaw. System administrators should conduct comprehensive reviews of customer access permissions and implement more robust input validation controls for search functions. Additional protective measures include monitoring for unusual search patterns, implementing network segmentation to limit access to ticketing systems, and establishing more granular access controls for internal versus customer-facing data. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of following security best practices such as principle of least privilege, regular security assessments, and maintaining up-to-date software versions. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability relates to T1083 (File and Directory Discovery) and T1005 (Data from Local System) as attackers can discover and extract sensitive internal information through legitimate system interfaces, demonstrating how seemingly benign functionality can be exploited for information gathering purposes.