CVE-2019-4637 in Application Control
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Security Secret Server 10.7 uses incomplete blacklisting for input validation which allows attackers to bypass application controls resulting in direct impact to the system and data integrity. IBM X-Force ID: 170043.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/27/2024
IBM Security Secret Server version 10.7 contains a critical input validation vulnerability that stems from incomplete blacklisting mechanisms within its security controls. This weakness allows malicious actors to craft specially formatted inputs that evade the application's protective measures, effectively bypassing intended security restrictions. The vulnerability resides in the application's approach to validating user-supplied data, where the blacklisting implementation fails to account for all possible attack vectors that could circumvent the validation logic. The incomplete nature of this blacklisting means that certain input patterns or sequences that should be rejected are permitted through the system's filters, creating an exploitable gap in the security architecture.
The technical flaw manifests when the application processes user inputs through its validation routines, where the blacklisting approach proves insufficient against sophisticated attack techniques. Attackers can leverage this weakness by crafting inputs that contain encoded or obfuscated payloads designed to bypass the restrictive patterns defined in the blacklisted character sets. This vulnerability specifically impacts the application's ability to enforce proper access controls and data integrity measures, as the validation bypass allows unauthorized operations to proceed unchecked. The incomplete blacklisting approach creates multiple potential attack surfaces where malicious inputs can slip through the validation filters, potentially enabling privilege escalation, data manipulation, or unauthorized system access.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple input validation bypass, as it directly threatens the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive data stored within the Secret Server environment. When attackers successfully exploit this weakness, they can manipulate system behavior in ways that compromise the application's core security functions, potentially leading to unauthorized access to secrets, credentials, or other sensitive information. The vulnerability's direct impact on system integrity means that data processing operations may be compromised, and the application's trust model could be undermined, affecting the overall security posture of environments relying on IBM Security Secret Server 10.7. This weakness particularly affects organizations that depend on the application for managing privileged credentials and sensitive access information, where the compromise of such systems could result in significant security breaches and regulatory compliance violations.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including enhanced input validation mechanisms, comprehensive testing of validation routines against known attack patterns, and regular security assessments of the application's input handling capabilities. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-20, which describes improper input validation, and represents a clear violation of secure coding practices that should prevent such incomplete validation controls from being deployed in production environments. Security teams should also consider implementing additional monitoring and logging around input validation events to detect potential exploitation attempts and establish more robust defensive measures against similar incomplete blacklisting approaches. The mitigation strategy should include updating to patched versions of IBM Security Secret Server and implementing compensating controls such as web application firewalls and additional data validation layers to protect against exploitation attempts targeting this specific vulnerability class.