CVE-2018-1403 in Rational Quality Manager
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Rational Quality Manager (RQM) 5.0 through 5.02 and 6.0 through 6.0.6 are vulnerable to cross-site scripting. This vulnerability allows users to embed arbitrary JavaScript code in the Web UI thus altering the intended functionality potentially leading to credentials disclosure within a trusted session. IBM X-Force ID: 138439.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/19/2023
IBM Rational Quality Manager versions 5.0 through 5.02 and 6.0 through 6.0.6 contain a cross-site scripting vulnerability that represents a critical security flaw in the web-based user interface. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, specifically manifesting as a reflected XSS attack vector. The flaw occurs when the application fails to properly sanitize user input before rendering it within the web interface, allowing malicious actors to inject JavaScript code that executes in the context of other users' sessions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability enables attackers to craft malicious payloads that exploit the web application's failure to validate and escape user-supplied data. When legitimate users interact with the affected RQM interface, their browsers execute the injected JavaScript code, which can manipulate the user interface, capture user interactions, or establish covert communication channels with attacker-controlled servers. This particular vulnerability is especially dangerous because it operates within the trusted session context, meaning that any credentials or sensitive information processed within that session could be compromised.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, as it creates opportunities for session hijacking and credential theft. Attackers can leverage the XSS flaw to steal session cookies, which would allow them to impersonate legitimate users and gain unauthorized access to the quality management system. The vulnerability's presence in both RQM 5.x and 6.x versions indicates a widespread issue affecting multiple major releases, suggesting that organizations using these versions face significant risk without proper mitigation measures. This type of attack vector is categorized under the ATT&CK framework as T1059.007 - Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript, demonstrating how attackers can leverage browser-based execution environments to achieve their objectives.
Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation and output encoding measures to address this vulnerability, ensuring that all user-supplied data is properly sanitized before being rendered in the web interface. The recommended mitigations include implementing strict content security policies, utilizing proper HTML escaping techniques, and deploying web application firewalls to detect and prevent malicious script injection attempts. Additionally, regular security updates and patches from IBM should be applied immediately to remediate this known vulnerability, as the timeframe for exploitation increases with the duration of the vulnerability remaining unpatched. The vulnerability's classification as a medium to high severity issue according to industry standards necessitates immediate attention and remediation to prevent potential compromise of quality management data and user credentials.