Subject: Security Advisory (BEA08-190.00)
From: BEA Systems Inc.
Minor Subject: A WebLogic Portal Administration Console session can inadvertently redirect from https port to an http port
Product(s) Affected: WebLogic Portal
Threat level: Medium
Under certain circumstances, an administrative https session is redirected to an http port that is not secure.
Severity: High
An attacker may be able to monitor an administrative session and obtain confidential information.
A problem was identified that could potentially cause a security vulnerability in certain versions of WebLogic Portal. Patches are available to correct this problem (see Section II). BEA Systems treats potential security problems with a high degree of urgency and endeavors to take appropriate steps to help ensure the security of our customers’ systems. As a result, BEA Systems strongly suggests the following actions:
I. Read the following advisory.
II. Apply the suggested action.
III. If you know of any additional users interested in future security advisories, please forward them the registration instructions included in this advisory.
I. Advisory
Under certain circumstances, accessing the Portal Administration Console via an https://<url> port and logging into the console will cause the rest of the session to be redirected to an http port that is not secure.
If a sophisticated user manages to monitor the administrative messages, they can potentially impersonate the administrator and perform all the privileged actions that an administrator would be able to perform via the WLP console.
This advisory corrects this issue by not redirecting an https session to an http port.
Impact and CVSS Ratings:
CVSS Severity Score: 8.8 (High)
Attack Range (AV): Network
Attack Complexity (AC): Medium
Authentication Level (Au): None
Impact Type: Complete Confidentiality, Integrity
Vulnerability Type: Information Disclosure
CVSS Base Score Vector: (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:N)
Complete CVSS Guide: http://www.first.org/cvss/cvss-guide.html
Online Calculator: http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?calculator&version=2
The following versions of WebLogic Portal are affected by this vulnerability
- WebLogic Portal 10.0, on all platforms
- WebLogic Portal 9.2 released through Maintenance Pack 2, on all platforms
II. SUGGESTED ACTION
BEA Systems strongly recommends the following course of actions.
WebLogic Portal 10.0
Upgrade to WebLogic Portal 10.0 Maintenance Pack 1
WebLogic Portal 9.2
- Upgrade to WebLogic Portal 9.2 Maintenance Pack 2
- Use the Smart Update Tool to install the 9.2MP2 patch for CR318480.
WebLogic Portal 9.2 Maintenance Pack 3 will include this functionality.
BEA strongly suggests that customers apply the remedies recommended in all our security advisories. BEA also urges customers to apply every Service Pack as they are released. Service Packs include a roll-up of all bug fixes for each version of the product, as well as each of the prior Service Packs. Service Packs and information about them can be found at:
http://commerce.bea.com/products/weblogicplatform/weblogic_prod_fam.jsp
Note: Information about securing WebLogic Server can be found at http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs100/lockdown/intro.html. Information about securing WebLogic Portal can be found at http://edocs.bea.com/wlp/docs100/security/lockdown.html. We strongly encourage you to review this documentation to ensure your server deployment is securely configured.
III. FUTURE SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS
If there are security-related issues with BEA product, BEA Systems generally distributes an advisory and instructions with a recommended course of action. Because the security of your site, data, and code is a high priority, we are committed to generally communicating security-related issues to our customers and partners.
All previous advisories and notifications can be viewed at http://dev2dev.bea.com/advisories/
BEA Systems has established an opt-in emailing list specifically targeted for product security advisories and notifications. As a policy, if a user has opted-in to our emailing list and there is a relevant security issue with the BEA product(s) he/she is using, BEA generally distributes an advisory and instructions via email with a recommended course of action.
ADDITIONAL USERS WHO WISH TO REGISTER FOR ADVISORY DISTRIBUTION SHOULD FOLLOW THE REGISTRATION DIRECTIONS AT http://dev2dev.bea.com/advisories
IV. REPORTING SECURITY ISSUES
Security issues can be reported to BEA Systems by sending email to secalert@bea.com or by following the directions at http://dev2dev.bea.com/advisories. If BEA has validated a reported security issue, we will endeavor to assess the severity of the impact of the security issue and the likelihood of the exploitation of the vulnerability. Based on these assessments and other factors, BEA will endeavor to develop and appropriately prioritize a workaround or patch designed to reduce or eliminate the risk of the vulnerability.
If you have any questions or care to verify the authenticity of this advisory, please contact BEA Technical Support at support@bea.com
Thank you,
BEA Systems, Inc.
