CVE-2021-2023 in Installed Base
Summary
by MITRE • 01/20/2021
Vulnerability in the Oracle Installed Base product of Oracle E-Business Suite (component: APIs). Supported versions that are affected are 12.1.1-12.1.3 and 12.2.3-12.2.9. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Installed Base. Successful attacks require human interaction from a person other than the attacker and while the vulnerability is in Oracle Installed Base, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Oracle Installed Base accessible data. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 4.7 (Integrity impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/16/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-2023 represents a critical security flaw within Oracle E-Business Suite's Installed Base component, specifically affecting API interfaces that govern the management of installed base data. This vulnerability resides in the Oracle E-Business Suite ecosystem, where the Installed Base functionality tracks and manages customer installations of Oracle products. The affected versions span across Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 through 12.1.3 and 12.2.3 through 12.2.9, indicating a broad impact across multiple release lines of the enterprise suite. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable means that attackers can leverage standard network-based HTTP protocols without requiring authentication credentials, making it particularly dangerous in environments where network exposure is inevitable.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control mechanisms within the API endpoints that handle Installed Base data operations. Attackers can exploit this weakness to perform unauthorized data modification operations including updates, inserts, and deletions against the Installed Base database. The CVSS score of 4.7 reflects the integrity impact severity, indicating that while the attack does not directly compromise availability or cause significant system disruption, it allows for unauthorized data manipulation that can fundamentally alter the installed base information. The vulnerability requires human interaction from users other than the attacker, suggesting that exploitation typically involves social engineering or targeted phishing campaigns where users might be tricked into interacting with malicious payloads or links that trigger the vulnerable API calls. This human interaction requirement does not diminish the threat level, as social engineering attacks remain highly effective in enterprise environments.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond the immediate Installed Base component, as indicated by the CVSS vector's scope change classification. Successful exploitation can potentially affect additional Oracle products within the E-Business Suite ecosystem, creating cascading effects throughout the enterprise application infrastructure. This interconnected impact occurs because the Installed Base data often serves as a foundation for other business processes and reporting functions within Oracle E-Business Suite. The unauthorized modification of installed base data can lead to inaccurate reporting, incorrect licensing calculations, and compromised business intelligence that affects decision-making processes. Organizations may face significant challenges in maintaining data integrity and regulatory compliance, particularly in industries where accurate installation tracking is mandatory for licensing audits and compliance reporting.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability should focus on immediate network-level protections including firewall restrictions to limit HTTP access to the affected API endpoints, implementing web application firewalls to detect and block malicious API requests, and applying Oracle's official security patches as soon as they become available. Organizations should also implement network segmentation to isolate critical Oracle E-Business Suite components and establish monitoring protocols to detect unusual API access patterns. The principle of least privilege should be enforced by restricting API access to only authorized users and applications, while also implementing comprehensive logging and audit trails for all Installed Base data modifications. Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of affected Oracle E-Business Suite versions and ensure proper patch management procedures are in place to prevent similar vulnerabilities from arising in the future.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and CWE-347 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature) as it demonstrates inadequate access controls and potentially insufficient input validation mechanisms. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application) and T1071.004 (Application Layer Protocol: DNS) as attackers leverage public-facing HTTP interfaces to compromise the system. The vulnerability also demonstrates characteristics of T1566 (Phishing) through the requirement for human interaction, making it a multi-vector threat that combines network exploitation with social engineering components. The CVSS vector's classification of UI:R (Required) indicates that user interaction is necessary for successful exploitation, which is consistent with phishing or targeted attack scenarios rather than purely automated network-based attacks. Organizations should consider this vulnerability as part of broader security hygiene practices and integrate it into their overall risk management and incident response procedures to ensure comprehensive protection against similar threats.