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Date of Incident:
2025-11-21
Overview:
The University of Phoenix experienced a data breach on November 21, 2025, which was reported on December 3, 2025. This breach affected the education sector, compromising sensitive personal and financial information of current and former students, employees, faculty, and suppliers. Attackers exploited vulnerabilities in the Oracle E-Business Suite, specifically through unpatched Oracle WebLogic Server flaws, achieving unauthorized access. The breach involved tactics such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting to extract data, including social security numbers and bank details. Forensic analysis revealed the use of malicious payloads, encoded PowerShell scripts, and command and control communications to maintain persistent access.
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Impact:
Unauthorized access to sensitive personal and financial information including names, contact information, dates of birth, social security numbers, and bank account and routing numbers of current and former students, employees, faculty, and suppliers.
Details:
The breach involved unauthorized access through the exploitation of vulnerabilities in Oracle E-Business Suite, corresponding to MITRE ATT&CK Tactic Initial Access (TA0001) via Exploitation of Vulnerability (T1190) and Credential Access (TA0006). The PoC code analyzed showed exploitation of unpatched Oracle WebLogic Server flaws leading to remote code execution (RCE), resulting in attackers gaining access to backend databases. IOCs include compromised IP addresses, malicious payloads executed on Oracle servers, specific registry changes indicative of persistence mechanisms, and log entries showing anomalous login times and forensic artifacts including SQL query logs extracting personal data. The attack leveraged SQL injection and cross-site scripting to exfiltrate sensitive PII such as social security numbers, bank routing, and account numbers. Extensive forensic logs revealed the use of encoded PowerShell scripts and C2 communications to command and control servers.
Remediation:
Oracle released patches for the affected Oracle E-Business Suite components; immediate application of these patches is critical. Temporary mitigations include disabling vulnerable components and restricting network access to the Oracle servers. Known workarounds involve monitoring and blocking unusual SQL queries and logging all remote access attempts for real-time anomaly detection.
Takeaway for CISO:
The breach exposed critical personal and financial data of stakeholders in the education sector, emphasizing the need for CISOs to prioritize patch management and hardening of ERP systems. Strategic focus should include regular vulnerability assessments, real-time monitoring of database activity, and incident response plans specifically tailored to ERP and financial data environments to mitigate similar risks.
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