CVE-2020-2857 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-2020-2857 resides within Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony, a component of the Oracle E-Business Suite ecosystem that manages telephony communications and outbound calling capabilities. This vulnerability specifically affects versions 12.1.1 through 12.1.3 of the Oracle E-Business Suite, representing a critical security gap that enables unauthorized network-based attackers to compromise the telephony system without requiring authentication credentials. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that attackers can leverage common network protocols to initiate attacks against the system. The attack vector operates through HTTP connections, making it accessible to threat actors who can simply connect to the affected system's web interface to exploit the flaw.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control mechanisms within the User Interface component of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony. The flaw allows attackers to bypass normal authentication procedures and gain unauthorized access to the telephony system's functionality. The requirement for human interaction from a person other than the attacker suggests that while the initial exploitation may be automated, successful exploitation often requires user involvement in the attack chain, potentially through social engineering or targeted manipulation of legitimate users. This human interaction factor increases the attack surface and makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where users have legitimate access to the system.
The operational impact of CVE-2020-2857 extends beyond the immediate compromise of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony, as the vulnerability can significantly affect additional Oracle products within the E-Business Suite environment. Attackers who successfully exploit this vulnerability can achieve unauthorized access to critical data within the telephony system, potentially gaining complete access to all accessible data through the compromised interface. The security implications include unauthorized update, insert, or delete operations against sensitive telephony data, which could result in data corruption or manipulation of critical communication records. The CVSS 3.0 base score of 8.2 reflects the severity of potential impacts, with high confidentiality impact indicating the ability to access sensitive telephony information and low integrity impact suggesting that while data modification is possible, the primary concern remains unauthorized access to critical system information.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-287, which addresses improper handling of authentication tokens, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with the ATT&CK technique T1566 for phishing and social engineering attacks. The combination of network accessibility and the requirement for human interaction creates a multi-layered attack scenario that can be particularly challenging to defend against. Organizations should consider implementing network segmentation to isolate telephony systems from general network access, deploying web application firewalls to monitor and filter HTTP traffic, and establishing robust user education programs to reduce the risk of social engineering exploitation. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of keeping Oracle E-Business Suite components updated, as newer versions likely contain patches addressing this specific flaw. Security teams should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of affected Oracle E-Business Suite installations within their environment and prioritize remediation efforts based on the criticality of the systems involved. The CVSS vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N clearly indicates that network-based attacks are possible with low attack complexity, no privilege requirements, and requires user interaction, making this vulnerability particularly concerning for organizations with exposed web interfaces.