Security Bulletin: SSL certificate validation disabled through a vulnerability in the Auto-Scaling for Bluemix service agent (CVE-2016-0323)

Summary

Liberty for Java applications bound to the Auto-Scaling for Bluemix service have SSL certificate validation disabled through a vulnerability in the agent for the service. The default SSL connection factory for https requests is set to bypass all trust management in this vulnerability.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID: CVE-2016-0323**
DESCRIPTION:** IBM Bluemix could allow an authenticated attacker to disable SSL certification check through a vulnerability in the Auto-Scaling agent.
CVSS Base Score: 6.5
CVSS Temporal Score: See https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/111623 for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N)

Affected Products and Versions

This vulnerability affects all versions of Liberty for Java in IBM Bluemix prior to version v2.7-20160321-1358 that have also been bound to the Auto-Scaling for Bluemix service.

Remediation/Fixes

To upgrade to Liberty for Java v2.7-20160321-1358 or higher, you must re-stage or re-push your application. To check which version of the Liberty for Java runtime your Bluemix application is using, navigate to the “Files” menu item for your application through the Bluemix UI. In the “logs” directory, check the “staging_task.log”.

You can also find this file through the command-line Cloud Foundry client by running the following command:

cf files <appname> logs/staging_task.log

You can see

-----> Liberty Buildpack Version: _________

To re-stage your application using the command-line Cloud Foundry client, use the following command:

cf restage <appname>

To re-push your application using the command-line Cloud Foundry client, use the following command:

cf push <appname>

Workarounds and Mitigations

Unbound the Auto-Scaling for Bluemix service from Liberty for Java for Bluemix and restage the application.