CVE-2017-3534 in FLEXCUBE Universal Banking
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking component of Oracle Financial Services Applications (subcomponent: Infrastructure). Supported versions that are affected are 12.0.1, 12.0.2, 12.0.3, 12.1.0, 12.2.0 and 12.3.0. Easily "exploitable" vulnerability allows low privileged attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking accessible data. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 6.5 (Confidentiality impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/19/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-3534 resides within Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking, a critical component of Oracle Financial Services Applications that serves as the backbone for banking operations across global financial institutions. This particular weakness manifests in the infrastructure subcomponent of the FLEXCUBE system, affecting multiple major release versions including 12.0.1 through 12.3.0, indicating a widespread exposure across the product lifecycle. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable represents a significant security concern, as it requires minimal sophistication for threat actors to leverage, making it particularly dangerous in environments where financial data integrity and confidentiality are paramount. The CVSS 3.0 scoring of 6.5 reflects the substantial impact on confidentiality, with a base score that places this vulnerability in the medium-high severity range, emphasizing the critical nature of the potential data compromise.
The technical flaw underlying CVE-2017-3534 stems from insufficient access controls within the HTTP communication layer of the FLEXCUBE Universal Banking infrastructure, allowing attackers with low privileges and network access to escalate their privileges and gain unauthorized access to sensitive financial data. This vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically targets the authentication and authorization mechanisms that should prevent unauthorized data access. The attack vector requires only network connectivity via HTTP, eliminating the need for physical access or complex attack chains, which significantly increases the attack surface and makes this vulnerability particularly attractive to threat actors. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple data theft to potentially enabling complete access to all data within the FLEXCUBE system, representing a catastrophic failure of the security perimeter that financial institutions rely upon to protect sensitive customer and transactional information.
The operational impact of this vulnerability creates severe consequences for financial institutions utilizing affected FLEXCUBE versions, as it exposes critical banking data to unauthorized access without requiring elevated privileges or complex attack techniques. Organizations that fail to address this vulnerability face potential regulatory violations, financial losses, and reputational damage from data breaches involving sensitive customer information, transaction records, and internal banking operations. The vulnerability's ability to enable complete access to all system data means that threat actors could potentially manipulate transaction records, access confidential customer information, or disrupt banking operations. This represents a fundamental failure in the principle of least privilege and could lead to cascading effects throughout the financial institution's operational framework, particularly given that FLEXCUBE systems typically serve as core banking platforms managing critical financial processes.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-3534 should prioritize immediate patching of affected systems with Oracle's security updates, as this represents the most effective solution to address the underlying access control weaknesses. Organizations should implement network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict HTTP access to FLEXCUBE systems, particularly limiting access to authorized administrative networks and implementing additional authentication layers beyond the default system controls. The implementation of network monitoring and intrusion detection systems becomes critical to identify potential exploitation attempts, while regular security assessments should be conducted to verify that access controls remain effective. Security teams should also consider implementing application-level firewalls and web application security controls to add additional protective layers, as this vulnerability demonstrates the importance of defense in depth strategies. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of affected FLEXCUBE versions and ensure that proper access controls are implemented across all system components, aligning with industry standards such as those recommended by the CWE taxonomy for access control vulnerabilities and ATT&CK framework's privileged access techniques.