IBM Support

JR57300: IBM BPM DOESN'T ENFORCE THE USE OF SECURE HTTPS TO SEVERAL BROWSER-TARGETED WEB MODULES

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APAR status

  • Closed as program error.

Error description

  • IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) does not enforce the use of
    secure HTTPS for several browser-targeted web modules. A client
    can connect to IBM BPM by using non-secure HTTP and, thus, cause
    the following concerns:
    
    -A security concern because almost all interactions with IBM BPM
    require authentication; therefore, almost all requests sent to
    IBM BPM contain some kind of credential, such as a cookie that
    allows impersonation of the user until expiration (2h by
    default) or a user name password that might be valid for much
    longer.
    
    -A functional concern because browsers make new HTML5 features
    available only for secure connections. The use of "mixed
    content" (where some content of a web site is loaded over
    non-secure HTTP and some other resources are loaded over secure
    HTTPS) frequently causes trouble, such as silently failing Ajax
    requests or missing stylesheets.
    
    Because non-secure access by using HTTP was possible, IBM BPM
    did not set the Secure flag for cookies, such as JSESSIONID and
    LtpaToken2, by default. This secure flag restricts clients to
    submit these cookies only over a secure connection and is often
    flagged as a weakness in vulnerability scans or penetration
    tests.
    
    PRODUCTS AFFECTED
    IBM BPM Advanced
    IBM BPM Standard
    IBM BPM Express
    

Local fix

Problem summary

  • No additional information is available.
    

Problem conclusion

  • A fix will be included in IBM BPM V8.5.7 cumulative fix 2017.03
    that
    
    -Enforces the use of secure HTTPS for browser targeting web
    applications.
    This enforcement is achieved by modifying the web deployment
    descriptor of the applications, specifically by adding a
    user-data constraint with a requirement of CONFIDENTIAL. As a
    result, a non-secure HTTP request results in a HTTP 302 response
    that redirects the client to the secure equivalent of the URL.
    For example, a request to http://bpm.customer.com:9080/teamworks
    would be redirected to https://bpm.customer.com:9443/teamworks.
    
    Browsers and some programmatic HTTP client libraries follow
    these redirects automatically so, for them, this change is
    transparent. However, because a the redirect target is a secure
    URL, the client must trust the HTTPS certificate of the server,
    which might require adding IBM BPM's signer certificate into the
    client's truststore.
    
    Some clients, such as SOAP clients, do not follow this redirect
    automatically. Therefore, SOAP web services are excluded from
    HTTPS enforcement by default. If you have other programmatic
    clients that use non secure HTTP to connect to IBM BPM and do
    not follow redirects automatically, you must update the
    configuration of these clients to use a secure connection
    instead.
    
    SCA modules in IBM BPM Advanced are unchanged.
    
    -Sets useHTTPSURLPrefixes to true during the cumulative fix
    upgrade from IBM BPM V8.5.0.0.
    There are several scenarios in which IBM BPM must calculate a
    URL for clients to contact IBM BPM. The exact URL might need to
    be different, depending on the type (and network location) of
    the client. The useHTTPSURLPrefixes configuration setting
    determines whether URLs are generated with a non-secure http://
    or secure https:// prefix. This setting has been set to true
    (https://) for new installations since IBM BPM V8.5.0.1.
    However, for environments that were initially created with BPM
    V8.5.0.0 the value was preserved; so some IBM BPM environments
    might have calculated http:// URLs. With this fix, we set the
    value of useHTTPSURLPrefixes to true by default, even for
    upgraded environments.
    
    -Sets the secure flag for LTPA and for session cookies.
    Because all clients connect to IBM BPM securely with this fix
    installed, IBM BPM can set the secure flag for LTPA and for
    session cookies. This flag tells browsers to submit these
    (sensitive) cookies over secure connections only.
    
    -Introduces AdminTask.configureBPMTransportSecurity,
    As explained in the first bullet, HTTPS enforcement is achieved
    by changes to the web deployment descriptors of various web
    modules. Modifying deployment descriptors is not supported, but
    if you temporarily must reenable non-secure HTTP access because
    some programmatic clients have non-secure connections and they
    cannot be updated immediately, this AdminTask allows you to
    reconfigure these deployment descriptors to allow non secure
    HTTP access.
    

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

  • APAR number

    JR57300

  • Reported component name

    BPM STANDARD

  • Reported component ID

    5725C9500

  • Reported release

    857

  • Status

    CLOSED PER

  • PE

    NoPE

  • HIPER

    NoHIPER

  • Special Attention

    NoSpecatt / Xsystem

  • Submitted date

    2017-01-23

  • Closed date

    2017-03-24

  • Last modified date

    2017-03-24

  • APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

  • APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

  • Fixed component name

    BPM STANDARD

  • Fixed component ID

    5725C9500

Applicable component levels

[{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SSFTDH","label":"IBM Business Process Manager Standard"},"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"857","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
04 September 2023