CVE-2018-10198 in OTRS
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in OTRS 6.0.x before 6.0.7. An attacker who is logged into OTRS as a customer can use the ticket overview screen to disclose internal article information of their customer tickets.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/30/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-10198 affects OTRS 6.0.x versions prior to 6.0.7, representing a significant information disclosure flaw within the customer ticketing system. This weakness allows authenticated attackers who have established customer sessions to access internal article details that should remain confidential to system administrators and support staff. The issue manifests specifically through the ticket overview screen, which serves as the primary interface for customers to view their submitted tickets and associated communications.
The technical flaw stems from insufficient access controls and improper authorization checks within the OTRS application's user interface components. When customers navigate to the ticket overview screen, the system fails to properly restrict access to internal article information that contains sensitive data such as system notes, administrative comments, or technical details that should only be visible to authorized personnel. This represents a classic case of insufficient privilege enforcement where the application does not adequately verify user roles before displaying potentially confidential information.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it undermines the fundamental security model of the ticketing system. Customer accounts that should only have access to their own ticket submissions and public communications can inadvertently gain visibility into internal system operations, technical troubleshooting notes, and administrative discussions. This disclosure can reveal system architecture details, potential security weaknesses, and operational procedures that malicious actors could exploit to plan more sophisticated attacks against the organization. The vulnerability particularly affects organizations that rely on OTRS for customer support and incident management, as it creates an information leakage channel that compromises the confidentiality of internal communications.
From a cybersecurity framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and represents a failure in the principle of least privilege enforcement. The flaw also maps to ATT&CK technique T1068 (Exploitation for Privilege Escalation) as attackers can leverage this information disclosure to gain deeper insights into the system. Organizations using OTRS should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor patch to version 6.0.7 or later, reviewing user role configurations, and implementing additional access controls to prevent unauthorized information exposure. The vulnerability highlights the critical importance of proper authentication and authorization mechanisms in web applications, particularly in customer-facing systems where access control boundaries must be strictly enforced to maintain information security.
This issue demonstrates the broader challenge of maintaining secure application interfaces where customer and administrative functionalities intersect. The vulnerability serves as a reminder that even seemingly benign user interfaces can contain critical security flaws when proper access control mechanisms are not implemented. Organizations should conduct regular security assessments of their customer portals and administrative interfaces to identify similar access control weaknesses that could compromise sensitive information disclosure. The patch for this vulnerability specifically addresses the authorization checks within the ticket overview functionality, ensuring that internal article information remains accessible only to authorized users with appropriate administrative privileges.