Software Engineering Institute

The Blackboard Transact application (previously know as Blackboard Commerce Suite) comes with a utility called BbtsConnection_Edit.exe that is used to edit the encrypted configuration file named connection.xml. When editing connection.xml, BbtsConnection_Edit.exe decrypts all the fields except the <Password> field. If a user opens the connection.xml file in text editor and copies the data for <Password> into any other field such as <Server>, then the BbtsConnection_Edit.exe program will display the password in the other field, in this example <Server>.

An additional issue exists in that the Blackboard Transact application uses multiple script and batch (.bat) files for automated backup procedures that contain the database username and password in clear text.

An attacker who has access to BbtsConnection_Edit.exe and the connection.xml file, or read access to the backup scripts, can obtain the database username and password.

Upgrade
The vendor has acknowledged these issues and additional information is available in the Vendors Affected section of this document.

Restrict access

It may be possible to set file permissions on BbtsConnection_Edit.exe, connection.xml, and the script and batch (.bat) files used for automated backup procedures to restrict access by administrators only.