MEDHOST Connex contains hard-coded credentials that are used for customer database access. An attacker with knowledge of the hard-coded credentials and the ability to communicate directly with the database may be able to obtain or modify sensitive patient and financial information. Connex utilizes an IBM i DB2 user account for database access. The account name is HMSCXPDN. Its password is hard-coded in multiple places in the application. Customers do not have the option to change this password. The account has elevated DB2 roles, and can access all objects or database tables on the customer DB2 database. This account can access data through ODBC, FTP, and TELNET. Customers without Connex installed are still vulnerable because the MEDHOST setup program creates this account.
Weakness
The product contains hard-coded credentials, such as a password or cryptographic key.
Affected Software
| Name |
Vendor |
Start Version |
End Version |
| Connex |
Medhost |
- (including) |
- (including) |
Extended Description
There are two main variations:
Potential Mitigations
- For outbound authentication: store passwords, keys, and other credentials outside of the code in a strongly-protected, encrypted configuration file or database that is protected from access by all outsiders, including other local users on the same system. Properly protect the key (CWE-320). If you cannot use encryption to protect the file, then make sure that the permissions are as restrictive as possible [REF-7].
- In Windows environments, the Encrypted File System (EFS) may provide some protection.
- For inbound authentication using passwords: apply strong one-way hashes to passwords and store those hashes in a configuration file or database with appropriate access control. That way, theft of the file/database still requires the attacker to try to crack the password. When handling an incoming password during authentication, take the hash of the password and compare it to the saved hash.
- Use randomly assigned salts for each separate hash that is generated. This increases the amount of computation that an attacker needs to conduct a brute-force attack, possibly limiting the effectiveness of the rainbow table method.
- For front-end to back-end connections: Three solutions are possible, although none are complete.
References