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Research from security organization AppOmni has found over 1,000 individual instances at ServiceNow which unintentionally exposed data from Knowledge Bases (KBs). This accounts for 45% of enterprises tested by the researchers. ServiceNow offers KBs, which are self-service platforms “for users to store, share, and manage content”.
ServiceNow is used by 85% of the Fortune 500 to manage IT services and processes, and companies use the service to set up systems that define, automate, manage, and structure IT services. This is not the first time ServiceNow has presented vulnerabilities, with security flaws also spotted by researchers earlier this year.
According to Aaron Costello, chief of SaaS security research at AppOmni, the risk comes from KBs that have been misconfigured by companies, leading to the exposed data. The applications affected were made public, so any threat actors could potentially see the information the bases contain.
Sensitive data
The information found by researchers contained personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, credentials, phone numbers, and internal system details. Internal information such as HR processes or cyber attack response protocol was compromised, which could cause serious issues for a company’s cyber security.
“This is critical for organizations that use ServiceNow to know about because it can lead to the exposure of sensitive information such as PII, internal system information, and active credentials,” said Costello. “This highlights the urgent need for enterprises to routinely check and update their security configurations to prevent unauthorized access and protect their data assets.”
ServiceNow introduced a round of updates in 2023 to their Access Controls Lists (ACLs) which were aimed at improving data protection but crucially these didn’t include KBs. Whilst externally facing information has legitimate uses, the KBs expose customer information which could be leveraged by threat actors.
To mitigate the risks of exposed information, the security researchers advise running routine diagnostics and communicating with software platform providers for the latest security updates.
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