CVE-2022-21579 in FLEXCUBE Universal Banking
Summary
by MITRE • 07/20/2022
Vulnerability in the Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking product of Oracle Financial Services Applications (component: Infrastructure). Supported versions that are affected are 12.1-12.4, 14.0-14.3 and 14.5. Difficult to exploit vulnerability allows low privileged attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking. Successful attacks require human interaction from a person other than the attacker. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized creation, deletion or modification access to critical data or all Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking accessible data as well as unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking accessible data. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 6.4 (Confidentiality and Integrity impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/13/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-21579 represents a significant security flaw within Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking, a core financial services application used by institutions worldwide for banking operations. This vulnerability exists within the infrastructure component of the Oracle Financial Services Applications suite and affects multiple version ranges including 12.1 through 12.4, 14.0 through 14.3, and 14.5. The CVSS base score of 6.4 indicates a medium severity threat that requires specific conditions for exploitation, yet poses substantial risk to financial institutions relying on this platform.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient access controls and authentication mechanisms within the HTTP interface of the FLEXCUBE system. Attackers with low privileges and network access can exploit this weakness to gain unauthorized access to critical banking data and system functionalities. The vulnerability's classification as difficult to exploit means that while it requires specific conditions, the attack vector is accessible through standard network protocols. The requirement for human interaction suggests that social engineering or user manipulation may be necessary components for successful exploitation, making this threat particularly concerning for organizations that rely heavily on user-based workflows.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond typical data breaches, as successful exploitation can result in unauthorized modification, deletion, or creation of critical financial data. This encompasses not just individual transaction records but potentially entire databases of customer information, account details, and financial transactions that form the backbone of banking operations. The confidentiality and integrity impacts are rated as high, indicating that attackers could both access sensitive data and modify it without detection, potentially leading to financial fraud, data corruption, or complete system compromise. Organizations using affected versions of FLEXCUBE face potential exposure to significant financial losses, regulatory violations, and reputational damage.
From a cybersecurity framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and represents a clear violation of the principle of least privilege that should govern all financial systems. The ATT&CK framework would categorize this as a privilege escalation or persistence technique, with the human interaction requirement suggesting potential use of social engineering tactics. Organizations should immediately implement network segmentation to limit access to FLEXCUBE systems, conduct thorough access control reviews, and deploy additional authentication layers. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal technical skill but significant social engineering capability, making comprehensive employee training essential for mitigation. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments should be implemented to identify similar weaknesses in other financial applications, while incident response procedures must be updated to address potential data modification scenarios. Organizations should also consider implementing automated monitoring solutions to detect unauthorized access attempts and maintain detailed audit trails for forensic analysis in case of successful exploitation attempts.