CVE-2017-3183 in XRT Treasury
Summary
by MITRE
Sage XRT Treasury, version 3, fails to properly restrict database access to authorized users, which may enable any authenticated user to gain full access to privileged database functions. Sage XRT Treasury is a business finance management application. Database user access privileges are determined by the USER_CODE field associated with the querying user. By modifying the USER_CODE value to match that of a privileged user, a low-privileged, authenticated user may gain privileged access to the SQL database. A remote, authenticated user can submit specially crafted SQL queries to gain privileged access to the application database.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/28/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-3183 represents a critical authorization bypass flaw in Sage XRT Treasury version 3, a business finance management application that processes sensitive financial data for enterprise users. This weakness stems from inadequate input validation and privilege enforcement mechanisms within the database access control system. The application's security model relies on the USER_CODE field to determine user permissions and restrict database access to authorized personnel only. However, the implementation fails to properly validate or sanitize this critical field, creating a path for authenticated users to escalate their privileges through direct database manipulation.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through SQL injection techniques that allow an authenticated user to modify the USER_CODE parameter in database queries. This flaw directly maps to CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization within software applications, and specifically manifests as a lack of proper access control validation. Attackers can construct specially crafted SQL queries that substitute their legitimate USER_CODE value with that of a privileged user, effectively impersonating high-privilege accounts within the system. The vulnerability is classified as a remote code execution risk because it allows attackers to perform authenticated database operations from external network positions without requiring additional authentication credentials beyond initial access.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data access, as it enables full database privilege escalation and potentially complete system compromise. An attacker with low-privileged access can gain unrestricted access to financial records, transaction data, user credentials, and other sensitive information stored within the Sage XRT Treasury database. This represents a significant risk to financial institutions and enterprises relying on the application for business-critical operations, as the vulnerability could lead to data breaches, financial fraud, and regulatory compliance violations. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that the vulnerability affects a business finance management application, which typically handles highly sensitive financial data and user information.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-3183 should focus on implementing robust input validation and parameterized queries to prevent USER_CODE field manipulation. Organizations should enforce proper access control mechanisms that validate user privileges at multiple layers of the application architecture, including database-level access controls and application-level authorization checks. The implementation of principle of least privilege should be enforced, ensuring that database connections use minimal required permissions and that USER_CODE values are properly sanitized and validated before being processed. Additionally, regular security assessments and code reviews should be conducted to identify similar authorization bypass vulnerabilities, with remediation efforts following the ATT&CK framework's mitigation strategies for privilege escalation techniques. System administrators should also implement monitoring and logging controls to detect unauthorized access attempts and privilege escalation activities within the database environment.