CVE-2021-33696 in BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform
Summary
by MITRE • 09/16/2021
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform (Crystal Report), versions - 420, 430, does not sufficiently encode user controlled inputs and therefore an authorized attacker can exploit a XSS vulnerability, leading to non-permanently deface or modify displayed content from a Web site.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/19/2021
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform represents a comprehensive suite of business intelligence tools that enables organizations to analyze data and generate reports through various interfaces including Crystal Reports. The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-33696 specifically affects versions 420 and 430 of the Crystal Report component within this platform, creating a cross-site scripting vulnerability that can be exploited by authenticated attackers. This flaw resides in the platform's insufficient input validation and output encoding mechanisms, which fail to properly sanitize user-controlled data before it is rendered in web interfaces.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate HTML encoding of user-supplied parameters within the web application's response generation process. When users submit data through various input fields or parameters within Crystal Reports, the system fails to properly escape special characters that could be interpreted as HTML or JavaScript code. This weakness allows an authenticated attacker who has access to the platform to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of other users' browsers. The vulnerability manifests as a reflected cross-site scripting issue where malicious payloads are reflected back to users without proper sanitization, enabling attackers to manipulate the visual presentation of content displayed within the web interface.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple content modification as it represents a significant security risk for organizations relying on SAP BusinessObjects for sensitive business intelligence operations. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to perform session hijacking, steal authentication tokens, redirect users to malicious websites, or manipulate the display of critical business data to mislead users. The non-permanent nature of the defacement does not diminish the severity of the threat, as it can still be used to conduct more sophisticated attacks such as credential harvesting or to create misleading reports that could impact business decisions. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations where multiple users access the same business intelligence platform, as the malicious scripts could affect all users who view compromised reports.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the official SAP security patches released for this vulnerability, which typically involve enhanced input validation and output encoding mechanisms. Network segmentation and access controls should be reviewed to limit the number of users with administrative privileges who can create or modify reports. The implementation of Content Security Policy headers can provide additional protection against script injection attempts, while regular security assessments should be conducted to identify similar encoding vulnerabilities within the broader SAP ecosystem. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and represents a technique commonly used in the ATT&CK framework under the T1059.007 sub-technique for script-based execution, demonstrating how authenticated access can be leveraged to establish persistent threats within business intelligence environments.