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Security Advisories and Notifications

Subject: Security Advisory (BEA08-159.01)
From: BEA Systems Inc.
Minor Subject: Requests served through WebLogic proxy servlets may acquire elevated privileges
Product(s) Affected: WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express

This security advisory (BEA08-159.01) contains the corrected remedy for this vulnerability on WebLogic Server 9.0 and WebLogic Express 9.0. Please disregard security advisory BEA07-159.00, as this advisory, BEA08-159.01 supersedes BEA07-159.00.

Threat level: Medium
HttpClusterServlet or HttpProxyServlet may process requests to a back-end WebLogic server on behalf of a WebLogic system identity.

Severity: High
External requests may be able to access resources only accessible to an administrator.

A problem was identified that could potentially cause a security vulnerability in certain versions of WebLogic Server. Patches/Upgrades 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

WebLogic HttpClusterServlet or HttpProxyServlet, configured with the “SecureProxy” parameter, may serve external requests to back-end WebLogic servers on behalf of a system identity instead of the proxy’s own identity. These external requests may be wrongly granted access to certain administrative resources that are only accessible to an administrator.

This advisory resolves the problem by enforcing the use of the proxy identity. The configuration of a proxy has also been enhanced to permit connections using two-way SSL.

Impact and CVSS Ratings:

CVSS Severity Score: 5.6 (Medium)
Attack Range (AV): Remote
Attack Complexity (AC): High
Authentication Level (Au): Not Required
Impact Type: Unauthorized access to administrative resources. Partial confidentiality, integrity, and availability violation
Vulnerability Type: Elevation of privilege
CVSS Base Score Vector: (AV:R/AC:H/Au:NR/C:P/I:P/A:P/B:N)

Complete CVSS Guide: http://www.first.org/cvss/cvss-guide.html
Online Calculator: http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?calculator

The following versions of WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express are affected by this vulnerability

  • WebLogic Server 9.1 on all platforms
  • WebLogic Server 9.0 on all platforms
  • WebLogic Server 8.1 released through Service Pack 5, on all platforms
  • WebLogic Server 7.0 released through Service Pack 7, on all platforms
  • WebLogic Server 6.1 released through Service Pack 7, on all platforms

II. SUGGESTED ACTION

BEA Systems strongly recommends the following course of actions.

WebLogic Server 9.1

Use the Smart Update tool to install the 9.1 patch for CR218580.
WebLogic Server 9.2 includes the functionality in this patch.

WebLogic Server 9.0

  1. Install the 9.0 GA Combo patch from support.bea.com by requesting Bug ID CR239280.

  2. Install the patch from:
    ftp://anonymous:dev2dev%40bea.com@ftpna.bea.com/pub/releases/security/CR218580_900.jar

  3. Place the jar for the patch at the end of the PATCH_CLASSPATH.

WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express version 8.1

Upgrade to WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express 8.1 Service Pack 6.

WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express version 7.0

  1. Upgrade to WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express 7.0 Service Pack 7.

  2. Install the patch from:
    ftp://anonymous:dev2dev%40bea.com@ftpna.bea.com/pub/releases/security/CR218580_700sp7.jar

  3. Place the jar for the patch in the CLASSPATH before the weblogic.jar file.

WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express version 6.1

  1. Upgrade to WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express 6.1 Service Pack 7.

  2. Install the patch from:
    ftp://anonymous:dev2dev%40bea.com@ftpna.bea.com/pub/releases/security/CR218580_610sp7.jar

  3. Place the jar for the patch in the CLASSPATH before the weblogic.jar file.

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:

WebLogic Server: http://commerce.bea.com/showallversions.jsp?family=WLS

WebLogic Platform: http://commerce.bea.com/showallversions.jsp?family=WLP

Note: Information about securing WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express can be found at http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs100/security.html. Specific lockdown information is provided at http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs100/lockdown/index.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.