Security Bulletin: IBM Maximo Asset Management installs with a default administrator account that a remote intruder could use to gain administrator access to the system.(CVE-2018-1524)

Workarounds and Mitigations

Additional Configuration for Existing Installations

Additional configuration is necessary for full protection on existing installations, even after application of Fix Pack or Interim Fix. Application of the Fix Pack or Interim Fix will allow simplified configuration of this security setting via a new property, mxe.int.allowdefaultlogin. On new installations, this property will already exist, and have the secure value of 0. However, administrators on existing installations must manually add the property and set the secure value after the application of the Fix Pack or Interim Fix. Manually adding the new property via these instructions without applying a Fix Pack or Interim Fix is also not sufficient for protection.

To manually add the mxe.int.allowdefaultlogin property to an existing installation after applying the appropriate Fix Pack or Interim Fix, please complete the following steps:

1. Log in as a user with access to the System Properties application.

2. From the System Properties application, click New Row to add a row to the Global Properties Table.

3. Use the following values to populate the new row. Leave other fields with their default values.

• Property Name: mxe.int.allowdefaultlogin 
  Description: Allow default login for MIF 
  Global Value: 0 
  Maximo Default: 0

4. Click Save. Then, check the checkbox for the row in the table containing the new property, and click Live Refresh. Click OK on the Live Refresh dialog.

Installation of the Fix Pack or Interim Fix above is the recommended remediation for this vulnerability for both new and existing installations. Application of the Fix Pack or Interim Fix will allow simplified configuration of this security setting via a new property, mxe.int.allowdefaultlogin.

However, new and existing installations with version levels earlier than the Fix Pack and Interim Fix levels specified above may manually apply an alternative fix. This alternative fix provides the same protection as application of the Fix Pack or Interim Fix, but will not allow simplified configuration of the security setting via the new property. If the fix in the Remediation/Fixes section has been applied and the mxe.int.allowdefaultlogin property is in use, the following manual configuration will have no effect.

To apply protection for this vulnerability without applying a Fix Pack or Interim Fix, please complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to the following file location: <maximo_root>\applications\maximo\mboejb\ejbmodule\META-INF

2. Open the ejb-jar.xml file.

3. Find all four instances of the following text. (You may Ctrl+F find "<env-entry-name>ALLOWDFLTLOGIN</env-entry-name>".)

• • <env-entry>
• <env-entry-name>ALLOWDFLTLOGIN</env-entry-name> 
  <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type> 
  <env-entry-value>1</env-entry-value>
  • </env-entry>

4. In all four text blocks, change the <env-entry-value> from 1 to 0: <env-entry-value>0</env-entry-value> 

5. Save the document. Delete the Maximo ear files, delete browser and app server caches, rebuild the maximo ear files, and redeploy.

Previous Bulletin Link CVE-2015-4966