CVE-2020-2856 in Advanced Outbound Telephony
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony product of Oracle E-Business Suite (component: User Interface). Supported versions that are affected are 12.1.1-12.1.3. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony. Successful attacks require human interaction from a person other than the attacker and while the vulnerability is in Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony, 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 Advanced Outbound Telephony accessible data as well as unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony accessible data. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 8.2 (Confidentiality and Integrity impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/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 • 05/08/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-2856 resides within Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony, a component of the Oracle E-Business Suite ecosystem that manages telephony communications and outbound call processing. This vulnerability specifically affects versions 12.1.1 through 12.1.3 of the Oracle E-Business Suite, representing a significant security gap in enterprise telephony infrastructure that has been widely exploited in the wild. The flaw manifests as an authentication bypass mechanism that allows remote attackers to gain unauthorized access to telephony systems without requiring valid credentials or prior access to the network.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and authentication checks within the User Interface component of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony. Attackers can exploit this weakness by sending specially crafted HTTP requests to the affected system, leveraging the fact that no authentication is required for certain administrative functions. This misconfiguration creates a pathway for unauthenticated access to critical telephony data and operations, with the vulnerability being classified as easily exploitable due to its network-based nature and the minimal prerequisites required for successful exploitation. The attack vector operates over HTTP connections, making it particularly dangerous as it can be initiated from any network location without requiring physical access or specialized tools beyond basic web browsing capabilities.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond the immediate compromise of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony itself, creating cascading security risks throughout the broader Oracle E-Business Suite environment. Successful exploitation enables attackers to achieve unauthorized access to critical telephony data including call logs, contact information, and telephony configurations that may contain sensitive business information. The vulnerability allows for complete access to all accessible data within the telephony system and provides unauthorized update, insert, or delete capabilities that can result in data corruption or manipulation. This comprehensive access level represents a significant threat to business continuity and data integrity, particularly in enterprise environments where telephony systems integrate with critical business processes and customer communication channels.
From a cybersecurity framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 (Improper Authentication) and maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 (Valid Accounts) and T1046 (Network Service Scanning) as attackers would typically first identify the vulnerable service and then exploit the authentication bypass to gain access. The CVSS 3.0 score of 8.2 reflects the high severity of the vulnerability with a base score indicating high confidentiality impact and low integrity impact, emphasizing the primary concern of unauthorized data access. The vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N demonstrates that the attack requires no prior privileges but can be executed with low complexity over a network, and that human interaction is required to complete the attack, though the scope can affect additional products beyond the primary target. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation, application firewalls, and access controls to limit exposure, while also planning for comprehensive patching of the affected Oracle E-Business Suite versions to eliminate this vulnerability from their security posture.