Skip to content

User authentication with username and password...

Critical severity Unreviewed Published Sep 12, 2023 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Apr 4, 2024

Package

No package listedSuggest a package

Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

User authentication with username and password credentials is ineffective in OpenText (Micro Focus) Visual COBOL, COBOL Server, Enterprise Developer, and Enterprise Server (including product variants such as Enterprise Test Server), versions 7.0 patch updates 19 and 20, 8.0 patch updates 8 and 9, and 9.0 patch update 1, when LDAP-based authentication is used with certain configurations. When the vulnerability is active, authentication succeeds with any valid username, regardless of whether the password is correct; it may also succeed with an invalid username (and any password). This allows an attacker with access to the product to impersonate any user.

Mitigations: The issue is corrected in the upcoming patch update for each affected product. Product overlays and workaround instructions are available through OpenText Support. The vulnerable configurations are believed to be uncommon.

Administrators can test for the vulnerability in their installations by attempting to sign on to a Visual COBOL or Enterprise Server component such as ESCWA using a valid username and incorrect password.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Sep 12, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 12, 2023
Last updated Apr 4, 2024

Severity

Critical

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.170%
(55th percentile)

CVE ID

CVE-2023-4501

GHSA ID

GHSA-gxh2-p3fj-8cc8

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

Learn more about GitHub language support

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.