Multiple vulnerabilities in IBM Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery

1) Resource exhaustion

EUVDB-ID: #VU82653

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-4785

CWE-ID: CWE-400 - Resource exhaustion

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to lack of error handling in the TCP server in Google's gRPC. A remote attacker can trigger resource exhaustion and perform a denial of service (DoS) attack by initiating a significant number of connections with the server.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.

2) Path traversal

EUVDB-ID: #VU79336

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-32558

CWE-ID: CWE-22 - Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform directory traversal attacks.

The vulnerability exists due to input validation error when processing directory traversal sequences within the deprecated API process.binding(). A remote attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP request and read arbitrary files on the system.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.

3) Path traversal

EUVDB-ID: #VU79340

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 3.2 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-32003

CWE-ID: CWE-22 - Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform directory traversal attacks.

The vulnerability exists due to a missing check in the fs.mkdtemp() API. A remote attacker can bypass the permission model check using a path traversal attack in fs.mkdtemp() and fs.mkdtempSync().

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.

4) Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

EUVDB-ID: #VU79334

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.4 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-32006

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to bypass implemented security restrictions.

The vulnerability exists due to improperly imposed security restrictions for the module.constructor.createRequire() method. A remote attacker can bypass the policy mechanism and include modules outside of the policy.json definition for a given module.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.

5) Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

EUVDB-ID: #VU79335

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.4 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-32559

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to bypass implemented security restrictions.

The vulnerability exists due to usage of deprecated API process.binding(). A remote attacker can bypass the policy mechanism by requiring internal modules and eventually take advantage of process.binding('spawn_sync') run arbitrary code, outside of the limits defined in a policy.json file.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.

6) Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

EUVDB-ID: #VU79339

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 2.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-32005

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote user to gain access to sensitive information.

The vulnerability exists due to an inadequate permission model that fails to restrict file stats through the fs.statfs API. A remote user can retrieve stats from files that they do not have explicit read access to.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote authenticated user via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.

7) Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

EUVDB-ID: #VU79332

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.4 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-32002

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to bypass implemented security restrictions.

The vulnerability exists due to improperly imposed security restrictions for the Module._load() method. A remote attacker can bypass the policy mechanism and include modules outside of the policy.json definition for a given module.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.

8) Path traversal

EUVDB-ID: #VU79337

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-32004

CWE-ID: CWE-22 - Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform directory traversal attacks.

The vulnerability exists due to improper handling of Buffers in file system APIs. A remote attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP request and read arbitrary files on the system.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Answer Retrieval for Watson Discovery On Prem: before 2.14.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:ibm_corporation:answer_retrieval_for_watson_discovery_on_prem:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

External links

http://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7051296

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.