CVE-2020-2915 in Coherence
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle Coherence product of Oracle Fusion Middleware (component: Caching, CacheStore, Invocation). Supported versions that are affected are 3.7.1.0, 12.1.3.0.0, 12.2.1.3.0 and 12.2.1.4.0. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via T3 to compromise Oracle Coherence. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle Coherence. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 9.8 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/21/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-2915 represents a critical security flaw within Oracle Coherence, a distributed caching solution that forms part of Oracle Fusion Middleware. This vulnerability specifically affects multiple versions including 3.7.1.0, 12.1.3.0.0, 12.2.1.3.0, and 12.2.1.4.0, making it a widespread concern for organizations utilizing Oracle Fusion Middleware environments. The flaw resides in the caching, cache store, and invocation components of the software, which are fundamental to the distributed computing architecture that Oracle Coherence provides for enterprise applications.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient authentication mechanisms within the T3 protocol implementation used by Oracle Coherence for communication between nodes. T3 is a proprietary protocol developed by Oracle for facilitating communication between different components of Oracle Fusion Middleware, particularly for cluster communication and cache operations. The vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to exploit network access points and establish connections without proper credentials, effectively bypassing the authentication layer that should protect the cache infrastructure. This weakness falls under the Common Weakness Enumeration category CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1110.003 for Brute Force or Credential Stuffing attacks, though the vulnerability itself enables pre-authentication compromise.
The operational impact of CVE-2020-2915 is severe and potentially catastrophic for affected organizations. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to complete takeover of Oracle Coherence instances, which serves as a critical component in many enterprise applications. The CVSS 3.0 Base Score of 9.8 indicates the highest severity level, reflecting the combination of high impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability gains full control over the caching infrastructure, potentially allowing them to manipulate cached data, disrupt service availability, or extract sensitive information stored in the cache. The compromise of Oracle Coherence can have cascading effects throughout enterprise applications that depend on this caching layer for performance optimization and data consistency.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability must implement immediate mitigations to protect their environments. The primary recommendation involves restricting network access to Oracle Coherence instances through firewall rules and network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted networks. Additionally, implementing strong authentication mechanisms and disabling unused T3 protocol endpoints can significantly reduce the attack surface. Oracle has released patches and security updates specifically addressing this vulnerability, which organizations should apply immediately. Network monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual T3 protocol traffic patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of securing middleware components and maintaining up-to-date security configurations, as these systems often serve as prime targets for attackers seeking to gain access to enterprise environments through well-known communication protocols.