CVE-2017-1758 in Financial Transaction Manager
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Financial Transaction Manager for ACH Services for Multi-Platform (IBM Control Center 6.0 and 6.1) is vulnerable to a XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to expose sensitive information or consume memory resources. IBM X-Force ID: 135859.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/04/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-1758 represents a critical XML External Entity Injection flaw within IBM Financial Transaction Manager for ACH Services for Multi-Platform, specifically affecting IBM Control Center versions 6.0 and 6.1. This security weakness resides in the system's processing of XML data inputs, creating a pathway for malicious actors to manipulate the application's behavior through crafted XML payloads. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and sanitization mechanisms that fail to properly handle external entity references within XML documents, allowing attackers to exploit the system's XML parser configuration.
The technical exploitation of this XXE vulnerability enables remote attackers to perform various malicious activities by leveraging the XML processing capabilities of the affected IBM Control Center components. When the system processes malformed XML data containing external entity references, it can be coerced into accessing local files, performing server-side requests to internal systems, or consuming excessive memory resources through recursive entity expansion. This behavior aligns with CWE-611, which specifically addresses XML External Entity Processing vulnerabilities, and demonstrates how improper XML parsing can lead to information disclosure and denial of service conditions. The attack vector operates entirely through network-based communication, requiring no local access or authentication credentials from the attacker's perspective.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure to encompass potential system resource exhaustion and unauthorized data access within financial transaction processing environments. Attackers could exploit the XXE vulnerability to extract sensitive configuration files, database connection details, or other confidential information stored within the system's local file structure. Additionally, the memory consumption aspect of this vulnerability poses significant risks to system availability, as maliciously crafted XML payloads could trigger resource exhaustion attacks that degrade system performance or cause complete service disruption. Given that this affects financial transaction processing systems, the potential for financial loss and regulatory compliance violations increases substantially, particularly when considering the ATT&CK framework's relevance to initial access and privilege escalation techniques that may leverage such vulnerabilities.
Organizations utilizing affected IBM Control Center versions should prioritize immediate remediation through official IBM security patches and updates, as these releases typically address the underlying XML parser configuration issues and implement proper input validation mechanisms. System administrators should also consider implementing network segmentation and firewall rules to limit access to affected systems, particularly restricting XML processing capabilities to trusted internal networks only. Additional mitigations include disabling external entity resolution in XML parsers, implementing strict input validation for all XML data processing, and monitoring system logs for suspicious XML processing activities that may indicate attempted exploitation. The vulnerability's classification as a remote attack vector emphasizes the importance of maintaining current security patches and implementing defense-in-depth strategies that reduce the attack surface exposed to external threats while ensuring compliance with financial services regulatory requirements that mandate robust security controls for transaction processing systems.