CVE-2020-4958 in Security Identity Governance and Intelligence
Summary
by MITRE • 01/21/2021
IBM Security Identity Governance and Intelligence 5.2.6 does not perform any authentication for functionality that requires a provable user identity or consumes a significant amount of resources. IBM X-Force ID: 192209.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/19/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-4958 affects IBM Security Identity Governance and Intelligence version 5.2.6, representing a critical authentication weakness that undermines the system's security posture. This flaw allows unauthorized access to functionality that should require verified user identity validation or consume substantial system resources, creating a significant attack surface that malicious actors could exploit to gain unauthorized privileges or execute resource-intensive operations without proper authorization.
The technical flaw manifests as a lack of authentication controls for specific system components that inherently require user identity verification or resource management. This weakness falls under the category of insufficient authentication as defined by CWE-287, where the system fails to properly verify user identities before granting access to sensitive functionality. The vulnerability particularly impacts operations that demand provable user identity or consume significant computational resources, creating potential for both privilege escalation and resource exhaustion attacks.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability compromises the integrity of the identity governance framework by allowing unauthorized users to access functionality that should be restricted to authenticated administrators or authorized personnel. The absence of authentication checks for resource-intensive operations could enable denial of service attacks through excessive resource consumption or provide attackers with access to sensitive identity data and governance capabilities. This weakness directly undermines the trust model that identity governance systems are designed to maintain, potentially leading to unauthorized access to user accounts, privilege manipulation, and compromise of the entire identity management infrastructure.
The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and privilege escalation through the exploitation of authentication weaknesses. Organizations using this software may face significant operational risks including unauthorized access to identity data, potential privilege escalation, and compromised system availability. The lack of proper authentication controls creates opportunities for attackers to perform operations that should be restricted to authorized users, potentially leading to data breaches, identity theft, and system compromise.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper authentication mechanisms for all system functions that require user identity verification or resource consumption. Organizations should immediately apply the vendor-provided security patches and updates to address this vulnerability. Additionally, implementing network segmentation, access controls, and monitoring for unauthorized access attempts can help reduce the attack surface. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar authentication weaknesses in the broader IT infrastructure. The remediation process should also include reviewing and strengthening authentication policies to ensure that all system functions requiring user identity verification or resource management properly implement authentication controls as specified in industry security standards and best practices.