CVE-2023-37489 in BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform
Summary
by MITRE • 09/12/2023
Due to the lack of validation, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform (Version Management System) - version 403, permits an unauthenticated user to read the code snippet through the UI, which leads to low impact on confidentiality and no impact on the application's availability or integrity.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/12/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-37489 affects SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Version Management System version 403, representing a significant security weakness that stems from inadequate input validation mechanisms within the application's user interface components. This flaw exists within the version management system functionality that controls how different versions of business intelligence content are handled and accessed within the platform. The absence of proper authentication and authorization checks during code snippet retrieval operations creates an exploitable condition that allows any remote attacker to access sensitive code elements without requiring valid credentials or privileged access rights.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests through the platform's failure to enforce proper access controls when serving code snippets through the graphical user interface. This weakness specifically impacts the version management system component where code elements are rendered or exposed to users, creating an information disclosure scenario that falls under CWE-284 - Improper Access Control. The vulnerability exists because the system does not validate whether the requesting entity has appropriate authorization to access the specific code snippet being requested, allowing unauthenticated users to retrieve potentially sensitive implementation details from the application's internal codebase.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a low confidentiality risk rather than a high-impact threat, as the disclosed information primarily consists of code snippets rather than sensitive data such as user credentials or database contents. However, the exposure of code elements can provide attackers with valuable insights into the application's internal architecture, implementation patterns, and potential attack vectors that could be leveraged in subsequent phases of an attack. The lack of impact on availability and integrity indicates that while information disclosure occurs, the system's operational functionality and data integrity remain unaffected, though the exposure of implementation details could enable more sophisticated attacks targeting other system components.
Security practitioners should implement immediate mitigations including enforcing proper authentication mechanisms for all version management system endpoints, implementing robust access control policies, and conducting comprehensive code reviews to identify similar validation gaps throughout the application. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566 - Phishing, as attackers could potentially use the exposed code snippets to craft more convincing social engineering attacks or to develop targeted exploits against other components of the platform. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation controls around the affected system and establishing monitoring procedures to detect unauthorized access attempts to version management interfaces. Additionally, regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify and remediate similar access control weaknesses that could exist in other components of the SAP BusinessObjects platform.