CVE-2024-49352 in Cognos Analytics
Summary
by MITRE • 02/05/2025
IBM Cognos Analytics 11.2.0, 11.2.1, 11.2.2, 11.2.3, 11.2.4, 12.0.0, 12.0.1, 12.0.2, 12.0.3, and 12.0.4 is vulnerable to an XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to expose sensitive information or consume memory resources.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/02/2025
IBM Cognos Analytics versions 11.2.0 through 12.0.4 contain a critical XML External Entity Injection vulnerability that represents a significant security weakness in the application's XML processing capabilities. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-611 category, which specifically addresses XML external entity injection flaws that can occur when applications process untrusted XML data without proper input validation and sanitization. The flaw exists in how the system handles XML parsing operations, particularly when processing user-supplied or externally sourced XML content that may contain external entity references.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability allows a remote attacker to craft malicious XML payloads that reference external resources or perform internal system operations through the XML parser. When the system processes such malformed XML data, it will attempt to resolve external entities and may inadvertently expose internal system information, access local files, or consume excessive memory resources through recursive entity expansion. This behavior stems from insufficient restrictions on XML parser configurations that permit external entity resolution by default, creating an attack surface that can be exploited without authentication.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it can enable resource exhaustion attacks that may lead to denial of service conditions within the analytics platform. Attackers can leverage this weakness to extract sensitive data from the system, potentially including database credentials, configuration files, or other confidential information stored within the application environment. The memory consumption aspect of the attack can also cause system instability or performance degradation, particularly when combined with recursive entity references that amplify the resource usage. This vulnerability directly impacts the integrity and availability of the IBM Cognos Analytics environment, which serves as a critical business intelligence platform for many organizations.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement mitigations including disabling external entity resolution in XML parsers, implementing strict input validation for all XML processing operations, and restricting network access to the affected system. The mitigation strategies should align with established security frameworks and best practices for XML security, including the implementation of XML schema validation and the use of secure XML parsing libraries that disable external entity resolution by default. Additionally, network segmentation and monitoring should be enhanced to detect and prevent exploitation attempts, with security controls aligned to the ATT&CK framework's initial access and privilege escalation tactics. Regular security assessments and vulnerability management processes should be strengthened to prevent similar issues in future system deployments and updates.