CVE-2023-50940 in PowerSC
Summary
by MITRE • 02/02/2024
IBM PowerSC 1.3, 2.0, and 2.1 uses Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) which could allow an attacker to carry out privileged actions and retrieve sensitive information as the domain name is not being limited to only trusted domains. IBM X-Force ID: 275130.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/24/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-50940 affects IBM PowerSC versions 1.3, 2.0, and 2.1, representing a critical cross-origin resource sharing misconfiguration that undermines the security posture of the system. This flaw resides in the application's CORS implementation, which fails to properly restrict domain origins, creating a pathway for unauthorized access and privilege escalation. The vulnerability allows malicious actors to exploit the lack of domain validation to perform actions that should be restricted to legitimate users within the trusted domain environment.
The technical flaw manifests through improper CORS policy enforcement where the system does not adequately validate the origin header sent by client requests. This weakness enables attackers to craft malicious requests from unauthorized domains that can bypass the intended security boundaries. When the PowerSC application processes these requests, it fails to verify that the requesting domain matches the expected trusted domains, allowing unauthorized access to protected resources and functionality. The vulnerability specifically impacts the authentication and authorization mechanisms by permitting cross-origin requests that should be restricted to legitimate internal domains only.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it enables attackers to carry out privileged actions without proper authentication or authorization. An attacker could potentially access sensitive information, modify system configurations, or perform administrative functions that should only be available to authorized personnel. The exposure extends beyond simple information disclosure to include potential privilege escalation scenarios where malicious actors can leverage the CORS misconfiguration to gain elevated system access. This creates a substantial risk for organizations relying on PowerSC for security-critical operations, as the vulnerability can be exploited remotely without requiring prior authentication credentials.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing strict CORS policies that explicitly define and validate trusted domains using the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header with specific domain values rather than wildcard configurations. Organizations should configure the application to reject requests from untrusted origins and implement proper origin validation mechanisms. Security patches from IBM should be applied immediately to address the vulnerability, and network segmentation should be implemented to limit exposure. The remediation aligns with CWE-346, which addresses Origin Validation Errors, and follows ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential access through web application vulnerabilities. Organizations should also implement monitoring for suspicious cross-origin requests and conduct regular security assessments to ensure proper CORS configuration.