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Introduction
CVE-2024-12706 (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is a recently discovered security vulnerability in OpenText™ Digital Asset Management (DAM), a leading software for managing digital assets such as images, videos, and documents. The vulnerability, classified as an SQL Injection, allows an attacker to manipulate the server-side database by running unauthorized SQL commands if they have authenticated access to the system. This post will provide a detailed analysis of this vulnerability, explain how it can be exploited, offer code snippets to replicate the issue, and provide mitigation measures to help secure your OpenText DAM environment.
Note: The vulnerability affects OpenText DAM versions up to and including 24.4, so it is crucial to update your installation to the latest version, which contains patches to fix known security issues.
Vulnerability: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL command ('SQL Injection')
SQL injection vulnerabilities occur when an attacker is able to execute arbitrary SQL commands on a server-side database, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data manipulation, or even complete system compromise. In the case of CVE-2024-12706, an authenticated attacker with access to OpenText DAM can take advantage of this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted request to the server, tricking the application into running unintended SQL commands.
The vulnerability arises from improper neutralization of special elements used in an SQL command. This happens because the application fails to properly sanitize user inputs before passing them to the SQL query, allowing an attacker to insert malicious code and manipulate the database.
Let's illustrate the issue with a hypothetical code snippet from OpenText DAM
# Assume user input is received from a web form:
user_input = request.GET['search_term']
# The following line constructs an SQL query using the user input:
query = "SELECT * FROM assets WHERE title LIKE '%" + user_input + "%'"
# Execute the SQL query
result = database.execute(query)
In the example above, a search term provided by the user through the web form is directly inserted into the SQL query without proper input validation and sanitization. This means that an attacker could craft an input value that would manipulate the SQL query in unintended ways, such as retrieving all records or even deleting data.
Exploit Details
To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would typically send a specially crafted request with malicious code meant to manipulate the SQL query. For example, an attacker could use the following input as a search term:
%' OR '1'='1
When inserted into the SQL query as shown in the code snippet, the resulting query would look like this:
SELECT * FROM assets WHERE title LIKE '%%' OR '1'='1'
This manipulated query returns all records from the assets table, as the OR '1'='1' condition is always true. An attacker can leverage this to view unauthorized information or even modify or delete data from the database.
Mitigation Measures
To secure your OpenText DAM environment against this vulnerability, several security best practices should be put in place:
1. Update and patch your OpenText DAM: Ensure your OpenText DAM installation is patched to the latest version, which includes fixes for known security vulnerabilities.
2. Strong user authentication and access control: Restrict access to the DAM system to only authenticated and authorized users. Implement strong password policies and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to further secure user accounts.
3. Input validation and sanitization: Establish strong server-side input validation routines that verify and sanitize user inputs before passing them to SQL queries.
4. Use parameterized queries: Parameterized queries separate the input data from the actual SQL code, reducing the risk of SQL injection. Rewriting the example code snippet using parameterized queries would look like this:
# Assume user input is received from a web form:
user_input = request.GET['search_term']
# Using parameterized queries:
query = "SELECT * FROM assets WHERE title LIKE %s"
params = ('%' + user_input + '%',)
# Execute the SQL query with parameters
result = database.execute(query, params)
5. Monitor and audit: Regularly monitor and audit your OpenText DAM, keeping an eye on potential unauthorized access, data manipulation, or other suspicious activity.
Conclusion
CVE-2024-12706 is a critical SQL Injection vulnerability in OpenText Digital Asset Management that could allow an authenticated user to run arbitrary SQL commands on the underlying database. This post provided a comprehensive overview of this issue, including code snippets and exploit details, as well as practical mitigation measures. To protect your OpenText DAM environment, always ensure you are running the latest versions and adhere to security best practices.
Original References
- CVE-2024-12706 Details
- OpenText Security Advisory
- OWASP SQL Injection Prevention Cheat Sheet
Timeline
Published on: 04/28/2025 18:15:46 UTC
Last modified on: 04/29/2025 13:52:10 UTC