Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This issue affects older OTRS helpdesk versions. A logged-in user who already has permission to write statistics can use that trusted access to inject code and gain additional privileges. The risk is highest where many staff or integrations have elevated reporting permissions.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation for any production OTRS instance with broad reporting permissions or external access. The issue needs authenticated access, but successful abuse could undermine trust boundaries inside a ticketing platform that often holds sensitive operational and customer data.
Technical view
CVE-2017-14635 is an authenticated code injection issue in OTRS 3.3.x before 3.3.18, 4.x before 4.0.25, and 5.x before 5.0.23. The prerequisite is statistics-write permission. Public sources provided do not include CVSS, CWE, exploit detail, or privilege scope specifics.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to organizations still running the affected OTRS version ranges and granting statistics-write permissions to authenticated users. Internet exposure increases operational risk, but authentication and a specific permission are required.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not identify active exploitation, and the CVE is not listed as KEV. Treat this as a privilege and code-injection risk from authenticated users, not as an unauthenticated internet-wide compromise based on available evidence.
Researcher notes
The available record is sparse: no CVSS, CWE, CPE, exploit status, or detailed patch notes are included. Version ranges and the statistics-write prerequisite are the strongest exposure indicators. Avoid assuming unauthenticated reachability or public exploit availability from these sources alone.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade OTRS 3.3.x to 3.3.18 or later.
- Upgrade OTRS 4.x to 4.0.25 or later.
- Upgrade OTRS 5.x to 5.0.23 or later.
- Apply the relevant Debian security update where Debian packages are used.
- Restrict statistics-write permission to trusted administrators only.
- Check current vendor guidance if running unsupported OTRS branches.
Validation and detection
- Inventory all OTRS instances and confirm exact installed versions.
- Identify users and roles with statistics-write permission.
- Verify Debian package versions where OTRS is installed from Debian repositories.
- Review audit and application logs for unusual statistics changes.
- Confirm upgraded systems no longer match the affected version ranges.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2017-14635 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- DSA-4021CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN
- https://www.otrs.com/security-advisory-2017-04-security-update-otrs-versions/CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.