CVE-2019-2836 in Hospitality Simphony
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle Hospitality Simphony component of Oracle Food and Beverage Applications. The supported version that is affected is 18.2.1. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Hospitality Simphony. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all Oracle Hospitality Simphony accessible data. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 7.5 (Confidentiality impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/05/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-2836 resides within the Oracle Hospitality Simphony component of Oracle Food and Beverage Applications, representing a significant security weakness in the hospitality industry's point-of-sale and restaurant management systems. This particular flaw affects version 18.2.1 of the software, which was widely deployed across hospitality establishments globally, making the impact of this vulnerability extensive and potentially devastating for organizations relying on this platform for their operational infrastructure. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that attackers require minimal technical expertise or resources to leverage this weakness effectively.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient authentication mechanisms within the HTTP communication protocols of the Oracle Hospitality Simphony system. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to establish network connections and exploit the system without requiring valid credentials or prior authorization. The vulnerability's CVSS 3.0 base score of 7.5 reflects the high severity of potential impacts, specifically targeting confidentiality aspects of the system. Attackers can gain unauthorized access to critical data and potentially achieve complete access to all data accessible through the Oracle Hospitality Simphony platform. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N) confirms that the attack requires network access, has low attack complexity, no privilege requirements, no user interaction, and results in high confidentiality impact without affecting integrity or availability.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe risk to hospitality organizations that depend on Oracle Hospitality Simphony for managing customer transactions, payment processing, inventory management, and other critical business operations. The potential compromise of sensitive data including customer payment information, transaction histories, and business-critical operational data could result in significant financial losses, regulatory penalties, and reputational damage. The lack of authentication requirements means that attackers can exploit this vulnerability from external network positions without needing physical access or legitimate user credentials, making it particularly dangerous for organizations with exposed network services. This vulnerability directly aligns with CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues in software systems, and corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1190 for exploitation of remote services, highlighting the multi-faceted attack surface this vulnerability exposes.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict access to the affected Oracle Hospitality Simphony systems, deployment of web application firewalls to monitor and filter HTTP traffic, and implementation of strong access controls to limit network exposure. The recommended approach involves applying the vendor-provided security patches and updates as soon as they become available, while also conducting comprehensive network audits to identify and remediate any additional exposure points. System administrators should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual network activity patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, and establish incident response procedures specifically addressing potential data compromise scenarios. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to ensure ongoing protection against similar vulnerabilities and to maintain compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements governing data protection in hospitality environments.