CVE-2025-31997 is a medium-severity authorization bypass vulnerability identified in HCL Unica Centralized Offer Management, a software product used for managing marketing offers and campaigns. The root cause is an Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerability (CWE-639), where the application fails to properly enforce authorization checks on user-controlled keys that reference internal resources such as database records or files. This flaw allows an attacker who already has some level of authenticated access and privileges to bypass intended authorization controls and directly access or manipulate sensitive resources they should not have permission to access. The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 25.1. The CVSS 3.1 vector indicates that the attack requires network access (AV:N), high attack complexity (AC:H), privileges (PR:H), and user interaction (UI:R). The impact is primarily on confidentiality (C:H), with no impact on integrity or availability. No public exploits have been reported yet, but the vulnerability is published and should be addressed promptly. The lack of available patches suggests that organizations must implement compensating controls until an official fix is released. The vulnerability is significant for organizations relying on HCL Unica for centralized offer management, as unauthorized access to sensitive marketing data or customer information could lead to data breaches or compliance violations.

For European organizations, exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive marketing data, customer information, or internal business records managed by HCL Unica Centralized Offer Management. This could result in reputational damage, regulatory penalties under GDPR due to data confidentiality breaches, and potential competitive disadvantage. Since the vulnerability requires high privileges and user interaction, the risk is somewhat mitigated but remains relevant for insider threats or targeted attacks involving social engineering. Organizations in sectors with heavy marketing and customer data usage, such as retail, finance, and telecommunications, are particularly at risk. The breach of confidentiality could also facilitate further attacks or fraud if sensitive customer or offer data is exposed. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially as attackers may develop exploits once the vulnerability details are widely known.

1. Implement strict server-side authorization checks to validate user permissions on all resource access requests, especially those involving user-controlled keys or identifiers. 2. Employ input validation and sanitization to prevent manipulation of keys or references used to access internal resources. 3. Monitor and log access patterns to detect anomalous or unauthorized attempts to access sensitive data. 4. Restrict privileges to the minimum necessary for users interacting with the Unica system to reduce the risk of privilege abuse. 5. Conduct regular security assessments and code reviews focusing on access control mechanisms within the application. 6. Until an official patch is released, consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious requests targeting resource identifiers. 7. Educate users about social engineering risks to reduce the likelihood of attackers gaining the required user interaction and privileges. 8. Engage with HCL Software support to obtain timelines for patches or workarounds and apply updates promptly once available.