CVE-2017-11614

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2017-11614 is categorized as a critical Hard-coded Credentials flaw with a CVSS base score of 9.8. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

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.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Credential Theft: Exposed secrets enable unauthorized access to infrastructure, cloud services, and third-party integrations.

✅ Compliance Violation: Leaking PII or credentials may violate GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOC 2 requirements.

✅ Supply Chain Risk: Compromised credentials in public repositories can propagate to downstream consumers.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2017-11614

1. Apply Vendor Patches: Upgrade affected components to their latest, non-vulnerable versions immediately.
2. Implement Input Validation: Ensure all user-supplied data is validated, sanitized, and type-checked before processing.
3. Deploy Runtime Protection: Use Precogs continuous monitoring to detect exploitation attempts in real time.
4. Audit Dependencies: Review and update all third-party libraries and transitive dependencies.

Defending with Precogs AI

Precogs PII & Secrets Scanner automatically identifies hardcoded credentials, exposed API keys, and personally identifiable information leaks across repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and deployed artifacts.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Hardcoded credential
public class DatabaseConfig {
    // Taint sink: secret embedded in code
    public static final String DB_PASSWORD = "SuperSecretPassword123!";
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Environment variables
public class DatabaseConfig {
    // Sanitized configuration
    public static final String DB_PASSWORD = System.getenv("DB_PASSWORD");
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs PII & Secrets Scanner continuously monitors codebases for hardcoded secrets, API keys, and reversible encryption.