Businessobjects Business Intelligence PlatformApplication · Sap

CVE-2019-0396

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 (Web Intelligence HTML interface), corrected in versions 4.1 and 4.2, does not sufficiently validate an XML document accepted from an untrusted source. An attacker can craft a message that contains malicious elements that will not be correctly filtered by Web Intelligence HTML interface in some specific workflows.

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 · moderate confidence

This is an XXE (XML External Entity) vulnerability in SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence HTML interface. The application fails to sufficiently validate XML documents from untrusted sources, allowing attackers to inject malicious XML entities that can be processed by the parser, potentially leading to data exfiltration or denial of service.

MitigationApply the corrected SAP BusinessObjects versions 4.1 or 4.2 patches. As a compensating control, disable external entity processing in the XML parser configuration and implement strict input validation for XML documents before processing.

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 Business Intelligence PlatformApplication
Affected:= 4.0= 4.1

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H

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
    Use the SAP BusinessObjects Central Management Console (CMC) or check the installation via the SAP BusinessObjects installer information. Look for the version number in the About section or system information.
    Affected if The installed version is 4.0 or 4.1, as these are the only versions listed as affected.
  2. Confirm Web Intelligence HTML interface is enabled
    Access the SAP BusinessObjects launch pad and verify that the Web Intelligence (WebI) HTML interface is available. Check the application settings in the Central Management Console (CMC) under Web Intelligence settings.
    Affected if The Web Intelligence HTML interface is enabled and accessible to users.
  3. Inspect XML parser configuration for external entity processing
    Review the XML parser or XML configuration settings used by the Web Intelligence HTML interface. Look for settings related to external entity processing, XXE protection, or XML external entity resolution.
    Affected if External entity processing is enabled or XXE protection is not configured in the XML parser settings.

You are affected if your SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is version 4.0 or 4.1, the Web Intelligence HTML interface is enabled, and external entity processing is not disabled in the XML parser configuration.

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 the corrected SAP BusinessObjects versions 4.1 or 4.2 patches. As a compensating control, disable external entity processing in the XML parser configuration and implement strict input validation for XML documents before processing.

Fix this in Businessobjects Business Intelligence Platform Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,680
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $9,088.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-0396 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2019-0396 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data