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Businessobjects Bi PlatformApplication · Sap

CVE-2018-2472

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-10-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.10 and 4.20 (Web Intelligence DHTML client) does not sufficiently encode user-controlled inputs, resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.10 and 4.20 Web Intelligence DHTML client due to insufficient encoding of user-controlled inputs. The flaw allows attackers to inject malicious scripts through unvalidated input fields that are rendered without proper sanitization.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied security patches for CVE-2018-2472. Until patched, implement output encoding and input validation on Web Intelligence DHTML client interfaces and consider deploying WAF rules to filter XSS attack patterns.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Businessobjects Bi PlatformApplication
Affected:= 4.1= 4.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform version
    Access the Central Management Console (CMC) and navigate to the 'About' section, or check the version through the SAP BusinessObjects Installation Manager. The version is typically displayed in the CMC footer or system information page.
    Affected if The installed version is 4.1 or 4.2 (or variants such as 4.1.x or 4.2.x)
  2. Confirm Web Intelligence component is deployed
    Check if the Web Intelligence DHTML client interface is accessible by logging into the SAP BusinessObjects launch pad and accessing the Web Intelligence application. Verify the 'Web Intelligence' icon appears in the available applications.
    Affected if Web Intelligence DHTML client is deployed and accessible to users
  3. Verify the DHTML client interface is in use
    When accessing Web Intelligence, confirm the DHTML interface is being used rather than the Java applet or other interfaces. The DHTML client is the default web-based interface for Web Intelligence documents.
    Affected if Users access Web Intelligence through the DHTML web interface
  4. Inspect input fields in Web Intelligence for encoding
    Create or edit a Web Intelligence document and examine the input fields such as report titles, variable names, or filter values. View the page source or use browser developer tools to check if these inputs are rendered with proper HTML encoding.
    Affected if User-controlled inputs are rendered without HTML entity encoding (visible as raw characters rather than encoded entities)
  5. Check for unpatched system configuration
    Review the SAP BusinessObjects system for installed security patches. In the CMC, check the 'Patches' section under the 'Manage' area to list applied patches.
    Affected if No security patches for CVE-2018-2472 have been applied

You are affected if your SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is version 4.1 or 4.2, the Web Intelligence DHTML client is accessible, and the CVE-2018-2472 security patch has not been installed.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor-supplied security patches for CVE-2018-2472. Until patched, implement output encoding and input validation on Web Intelligence DHTML client interfaces and consider deploying WAF rules to filter XSS attack patterns.

Fix this in Businessobjects Bi Platform Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-2472 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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