# CVE-2019-8978: Race condition in n/a

> Remote attackers can steal victim sessions and cause denial of service via a race condition in Ellucian Banner Web Tailor and Identity Services.

- **Severity:** High 8.1 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 May 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-fcm9-r389-xjjv

## What is CVE-2019-8978?

CVE-2019-8978 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 14 May 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An improper authentication vulnerability can be exploited through a race condition that occurs in Ellucian Banner Web Tailor 8.8.3, 8.8.4, and 8.9 and Banner Enterprise Identity Services 8.3, 8.3.1, 8.3.2, and 8.4, in conjunction with SSO Manager. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to steal a victim's session (and cause a denial of service) by repeatedly requesting the initial Banner Web Tailor main page with the IDMSESSID cookie set to the victim's UDCID, which in the case tested is the institutional ID. During a login attempt by a victim, the attacker can leverage the race condition and will be issued the SESSID that was meant for this victim.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization), CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-8978?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Ellucian Banner Enterprise Identity Services, Ellucian Banner Web Tailor.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-8978?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-8978 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-8978 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-8978 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Banner Web Tailor and Banner Enterprise Identity Services Vulnerability Disclosure (github_poc): https://github.com/SecKatie/CVE-2019-8978

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-8978 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-8978 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 14 May 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-8978 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8978/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8978/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-8978
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-8978
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-8978

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8978/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.