Micro Focus Access Manager: information disclosure flaw under attack

What is affected

Micro Focus Access Manager is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

Micro Focus Access Manager contains an information leakage vulnerability resulting from a SAML service provider redirection issue when the Assertion Consumer Service URL is used.

What an attacker can do

This is a information disclosure flaw. It lets an attacker read data they are not supposed to see, such as memory contents, credentials or internal files. It is often the first step of a larger attack.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer Micro Focus Access Manager at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on November 3, 2021, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by November 17, 2021, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 26% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 98% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 7.5 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

Advance configuration exposing Information Leakage vulnerability in Micro Focus Access Manager product, affects all versions prior to version 5.0. The vulnerability could cause information leakage.