CVE-2017-12815

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2017-12815 is categorized as a critical Path Traversal flaw with a CVSS base score of 10. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

Analysis of the Bomgar Remote Support Portal JavaStart.jar Applet 52790 and earlier revealed that it is vulnerable to a path traversal vulnerability. The archive can be downloaded from a given Bomgar Remote Support Portal deployment at https://domain/api/content/JavaStart.jar and is callable from an arbitrary website using <object> and/or <appletHTML> tags. Successful exploitation results in file creation/modification/deletion in the operating system and with privileges of the user that ran the Java applet.

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

✅ Data Exfiltration: Attackers can extract sensitive data from backend databases, configuration files, or internal services.

✅ Authentication Bypass: Exploiting this flaw may allow unauthorized access to protected resources and administrative interfaces.

✅ Lateral Movement: Once initial access is gained, attackers can pivot to internal systems and escalate privileges.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2017-12815

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

The Bomgar Remote Support Portal (JavaStart) contains a vulnerability allowing remote code execution. Attackers exploit insecure deserialization or unvalidated input during the initialization of the remote support applet to execute arbitrary commands. Precogs API Security Engine identifies unsafe object deserialization mechanisms.

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: Unvalidated path resolution
public File getFile(String filename) {
    String basePath = "/var/www/uploads/";
    // Taint sink: permits directory traversal via "../"
    return new File(basePath + filename);
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Canonical path validation
public File getFile(String filename) throws IOException {
    File baseDir = new File("/var/www/uploads/").getCanonicalFile();
    File requestedFile = new File(baseDir, filename).getCanonicalFile();
    
    // Sanitized boundary check
    if (!requestedFile.getPath().startsWith(baseDir.getPath())) {
        throw new SecurityException("Path traversal attempt detected");
    }
    return requestedFile;
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs AI Analysis Engine utilizes semantic taint tracking to detect insecure path resolution sinks, ensuring file access is strictly bounded.\n