CVE-2018-2643 in Argus Safety
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle Argus Safety component of Oracle Health Sciences Applications (subcomponent: Case Selection). Supported versions that are affected are 7.x and 8.0.x. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows low privileged attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Argus Safety. While the vulnerability is in Oracle Argus Safety, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Oracle Argus Safety accessible data as well as unauthorized read access to a subset of Oracle Argus Safety accessible data. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 6.4 (Confidentiality and Integrity impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/31/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-2643 resides within Oracle Argus Safety, a critical component of Oracle Health Sciences Applications designed for safety data management in clinical trials. This particular weakness manifests in the Case Selection subcomponent, affecting versions 7.x and 8.0.x of the software. The vulnerability represents a significant security concern as it operates within a system that handles sensitive pharmaceutical and medical data, making it a prime target for malicious actors seeking to compromise clinical research integrity. The affected system serves as a cornerstone for safety monitoring in drug development processes, where unauthorized access could fundamentally alter the reliability of clinical trial outcomes.
The technical flaw constitutes a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows attackers with low privileges to exploit a path through the HTTP protocol to gain unauthorized access to the Oracle Argus Safety system. This vulnerability falls under the Common Weakness Enumeration category of insufficient authorization, specifically CWE-284, where the system fails to properly enforce access controls for sensitive operations. The attack vector requires only network access via HTTP, making it particularly dangerous as it can be executed remotely without requiring physical access or elevated privileges. The vulnerability's exploitability is rated as easily accessible, indicating that the attack surface is well-understood and the attack methods are straightforward to implement.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond the immediate compromise of Oracle Argus Safety itself, potentially affecting additional Oracle Health Sciences products that may share underlying infrastructure or data repositories. Successful exploitation grants attackers unauthorized capabilities to modify or delete data within the system, along with read access to sensitive information that could include patient safety data, clinical trial results, and research findings. The CVSS 3.0 base score of 6.4 reflects the moderate severity of the impact, with confidentiality and integrity compromised at a level that could significantly affect the trustworthiness of clinical data. The vector indicates network-based attack with low complexity and the ability to cause a security context change that affects multiple products, suggesting cascading effects throughout the Oracle Health Sciences ecosystem.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict access to the Argus Safety system, deployment of web application firewalls to monitor and filter HTTP traffic, and implementation of multi-factor authentication for all administrative access points. Regular security assessments should be conducted to identify additional attack vectors that may exist within the broader Oracle Health Sciences environment. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of maintaining current patch management procedures and implementing robust access control policies that align with the principle of least privilege. Security teams should consider the ATT&CK framework's privilege escalation techniques when developing defensive strategies, as this vulnerability essentially provides a pathway for attackers to move laterally within the network and potentially access additional systems containing sensitive health information.