CVE-2021-35687 in Financial Services Analytical Applications Infrastructure
Summary
by MITRE • 01/19/2022
Vulnerability in the Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications Infrastructure product of Oracle Financial Services Applications (component: Unified Metadata Manager). Supported versions that are affected are 8.0.7-8.1.1. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications Infrastructure. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized read access to a subset of Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications Infrastructure accessible data. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 5.3 (Confidentiality impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/23/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-35687 affects the Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications Infrastructure product within the Oracle Financial Services Applications suite, specifically targeting the Unified Metadata Manager component. This security flaw exists in versions 8.0.7 through 8.1.1, representing a significant concern for financial institutions that rely on these analytical platforms for critical business operations. The vulnerability falls under the category of insufficient authentication mechanisms, where an attacker can gain unauthorized access to sensitive data without requiring any valid credentials or prior authentication. The CVSS score of 5.3 indicates a medium severity impact, primarily focusing on confidentiality implications with no direct impact on integrity or availability. This vulnerability represents a classic example of a privilege escalation issue that can be exploited through network-based attacks, making it particularly dangerous for organizations with exposed network services.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate access controls within the Unified Metadata Manager component, which fails to properly validate authentication requests from external network sources. Attackers can exploit this weakness by sending specially crafted HTTP requests to the affected application, bypassing normal authentication mechanisms entirely. The flaw allows for unauthorized read access to a subset of the application's data, potentially exposing sensitive financial information, metadata configurations, or analytical reports that could be valuable to threat actors. This type of vulnerability is classified as CWE-287, which deals with improper authentication issues, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for Valid Accounts and T1046 for Network Service Scanning, as attackers can discover and exploit this vulnerability without requiring legitimate credentials. The attack vector requires only network connectivity via HTTP protocols, making it easily exploitable by threat actors with basic network access.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as financial services organizations may face regulatory compliance issues if sensitive customer or transaction data becomes compromised. The affected data subset could include analytical models, business intelligence configurations, or metadata that supports critical financial decision-making processes. Organizations using these applications may experience reputational damage, regulatory penalties, and potential financial losses if this vulnerability is exploited successfully. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable means that automated scanning tools could quickly identify and exploit this weakness, increasing the risk of widespread compromise across multiple installations. This type of vulnerability is particularly concerning for financial institutions that must maintain strict data governance and privacy controls, as it could lead to violations of financial regulations such as SOX, GDPR, or other applicable compliance frameworks. The lack of authentication requirements for data access represents a fundamental security flaw that could enable attackers to gain insights into business operations, customer behaviors, or financial performance metrics.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to limit access to the affected application, deployment of web application firewalls to monitor and filter HTTP traffic, and implementation of strong access controls for the Unified Metadata Manager component. Regular patching of the Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications Infrastructure to the latest supported versions is critical, as Oracle has likely addressed this vulnerability in subsequent releases. Network monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual access patterns to the affected components, and privileged access should be strictly limited to authorized personnel only. Additional security controls such as multi-factor authentication and regular security assessments can help reduce the overall risk exposure. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining up-to-date security practices and the necessity of thorough security testing for financial applications that handle sensitive data, as this type of flaw can have cascading effects on entire financial ecosystems. Organizations should also consider implementing data loss prevention solutions to monitor for unauthorized data access attempts and establish incident response procedures specifically tailored to address this class of vulnerability.