Customers of ServiceNow, a cloud-based platform used to handle IT companies and processes, might be unknowingly exposing confidential data, together with names, cellphone numbers, inner system particulars, and energetic credentials.
Misconfiguration of Data Bases — self-service platforms inside ServiceNow the place customers can create, retailer, and share data equivalent to articles and guides — might result in unauthorised people getting access to the system. Many organisations use Data Bases as repositories of delicate inner data, equivalent to how you can reset firm passwords, how to reply to a cyberattack, knowledge associated to HR processes, and extra.
In response to a new weblog from SaaS safety platform supplier AppOmni, round 60% of exposures contain older variations of Data Bases which might be set as much as permit public entry by default. Others have “Consumer Standards” — guidelines that outline particular circumstances for customers to entry or contribute to Data Bases — which might be unintentionally granting entry to unauthenticated customers.
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ServiceNow is utilized by 85% of Fortune 500, and over a thousand cases are at present arrange incorrectly. Many organisations with a number of ServiceNow cases had been discovered to have persistently misconfigured Data Base entry controls, indicating that the settings had been both cloned throughout cases or a elementary misunderstanding of how they work exists.
Aaron Costello, chief of SaaS safety analysis at AppOmni, mentioned, “This highlights the pressing want for enterprises to routinely test and replace their safety configurations to forestall unauthorised entry and shield their knowledge property.
“Understanding these points and how you can mitigate them is crucial for sustaining strong safety in enterprise SaaS environments.”
This isn’t the primary time ServiceNow has been discovered to have been exposing delicate knowledge because of person misconfigurations. In 2020, one other researcher reported an analogous discovering the place Data Base articles had been publicly accessible via a now-secure UI web page.
Ben De Bont, chief data safety officer at ServiceNow, mentioned, “ServiceNow is dedicated to fostering collaboration with the safety neighborhood. We’re dedicated to defending our clients’ knowledge, and safety researchers are essential companions in our ongoing efforts to enhance the safety of our merchandise.”
What are the Data Base misconfigurations?
AppOmni found three circumstances whereby companies had been placing their ServiceNow Data Bases prone to compromise:
- If utilizing an older model of ServiceNow the place the default settings for Data Base permit public entry when Consumer Standards aren’t arrange.
- If the “Any Consumer” and “Any person for kb” Consumer Standards are used as allowlists. Each of those grant entry to unauthenticated customers, which directors could not realise.
- If directors don’t configure denylists, permitting exterior customers to bypass entry controls.
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How attackers can acquire entry to the Data Bases
In response to Costello’s proof of idea, attackers can acquire entry to misconfigured Data Bases via Public Widgets, such because the “KB Article Web page” widget, which shows content material from a particular Data Base article.
An attacker can automate requests to search out and entry articles via the widget utilizing a device known as Burp Suite. That is simpler with the KB Article Web page widget, which makes use of a predictable format for article IDs of “KBXXXXXXX,” the place X represents a optimistic integer.
Burp Suite’s Intruder characteristic can rapidly iterate over these integers and establish articles that could be uncovered unintentionally. It could actually then return the physique textual content, which can include the delicate knowledge of a number of unsecured articles directly.
The right way to safe Data Bases in opposition to unauthorised entry
Run common diagnostics on Data Base entry controls
ServiceNow’s Consumer Standards diagnostics device permits directors to find out which customers, each authenticated and unauthenticated, have the power to entry Data Bases and particular person articles.
Navigate to /get_public_knowledge_bases.do to establish public Data Bases, and the complete diagnostics device at /km_diagnostics.do to establish the entry stage of public and private customers to particular person articles.
Use Enterprise Guidelines to disclaim unauthenticated entry to Data Bases by default
Make sure the “sys_id 6c8ec5147711111016f35c207b5a9969” Enterprise Rule — which provides the Visitor Consumer to the “Can’t Learn and Can’t Contribute” Consumer Standards — is activated for Data Bases.