CVE-2020-14690 in Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition product of Oracle Fusion Middleware (component: Analytics Actions). Supported versions that are affected are 5.5.0.0.0, 11.1.1.9.0, 12.2.1.3.0 and 12.2.1.4.0. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. Successful attacks require human interaction from a person other than the attacker and while the vulnerability is in Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition accessible data as well as unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition accessible data. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 8.2 (Confidentiality and Integrity impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/01/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-14690 represents a critical security flaw within Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, specifically within the Analytics Actions component of Oracle Fusion Middleware. This vulnerability affects multiple version lines including 5.5.0.0.0, 11.1.1.9.0, 12.2.1.3.0, and 12.2.1.4.0, indicating a widespread impact across the product's lifecycle. The vulnerability classification as easily exploitable suggests that attackers can leverage this flaw with minimal technical expertise, making it particularly dangerous in production environments where such systems often handle sensitive business intelligence data.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient authentication mechanisms within the Analytics Actions component, allowing unauthenticated attackers to gain access to the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition through HTTP network connections. This represents a fundamental breakdown in the security architecture where the system fails to properly validate user credentials before granting access to sensitive functionalities. The CVSS 3.1 score of 8.2 reflects the high severity of this flaw, with confidentiality impact rated as high and integrity impact as low, indicating that while data exposure is the primary concern, the system's ability to maintain data integrity is also compromised. The attack vector AV:N indicates network-based exploitation, while the low attack complexity AC:L suggests that the vulnerability can be exploited without specialized tools or extensive knowledge.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond the immediate compromise of the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition system. Successful exploitation can result in unauthorized access to critical business data, potentially exposing sensitive financial information, strategic plans, or proprietary business intelligence that could significantly impact organizational operations. The vulnerability's potential to cause complete access to all accessible data represents a severe risk to information security, particularly in enterprise environments where business intelligence systems contain comprehensive data about organizational operations, customer information, and strategic business metrics. Additionally, the vulnerability allows unauthorized update, insert, or delete access to some accessible data, creating opportunities for data corruption or manipulation that could undermine business operations and decision-making processes.
The requirement for human interaction from a person other than the attacker indicates that while the vulnerability can be exploited automatically, it may require some form of user engagement or specific conditions to be fully leveraged. This characteristic places the vulnerability in the context of social engineering or targeted attacks where an attacker might need to convince a legitimate user to perform certain actions that trigger the vulnerability. The CVSS vector's S:C classification indicates that the vulnerability can impact additional products, suggesting that the compromise of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition could potentially affect other systems or components within the broader Oracle Fusion Middleware ecosystem. Organizations should consider the potential for lateral movement and cascading effects when assessing the impact of this vulnerability.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate patch management and network-level controls to prevent unauthorized access to the affected systems. Organizations should prioritize applying Oracle's security patches and updates as soon as they become available, as this vulnerability affects multiple versions of the software. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit exposure of the affected components to untrusted networks. Additionally, monitoring for suspicious network activity and implementing robust authentication mechanisms can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's classification under CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) would likely relate to CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues, and could be mapped to ATT&CK techniques involving credential access and initial access phases. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify and remediate similar weaknesses in the broader Oracle Fusion Middleware environment.