CVE-2010-3194
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe DB2DART program in IBM DB2 9.1 before FP9, 9.5 before FP6, and 9.7 before FP2 allows attackers to bypass intended file access restrictions via unspecified vectors related to overwriting files owned by an instance owner.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThis is an authorization bypass vulnerability in IBM DB2's DB2DART utility. The tool is designed with file access restrictions to prevent unauthorized file operations, but the vulnerability allows attackers to bypass these restrictions and overwrite files owned by the DB2 instance owner. This enables privilege escalation by modifying files that should be protected.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 9.1= 9.5= 9.7CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine installed DB2 versionRun the command 'db2level' or 'db2pd -version' from a DB2 instance owner account to retrieve the exact DB2 version and fix pack level.Affected if The version displayed matches 9.1, 9.5, or 9.7 (any fix pack level within these major versions).
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Verify DB2DART utility presenceLocate the db2dart executable in the DB2 installation bin directory (commonly $DB2DIR/bin/db2dart or /opt/ibm/db2/V9.X/bin/db2dart). Use 'find / -name db2dart 2>/dev/null' if the installation path is unknown.Affected if The db2dart executable exists and is executable by the DB2 instance owner or database administrators.
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Check DB2 instance owner configurationIdentify the DB2 instance owner using 'db2 get instance' or by examining /etc/passwd for db2* users, then verify this user has write access to sensitive system files.Affected if The DB2 instance owner account exists and has elevated privileges that could be exploited through the vulnerability.
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Review DB2DART file permissionsRun 'ls -la <DB2DIR>/bin/db2dart' to examine ownership and permissions. Also check the db2darthelp file in the same directory for access controls.Affected if The db2dart binary is owned by the DB2 instance owner or root, and is set executable without unexpected restricted attributes.
A user is affected if they are running IBM DB2 versions 9.1, 9.5, or 9.7 and have the DB2DART utility accessible to users who should be restricted from modifying instance-owner files.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply the appropriate IBM DB2 Fix Pack: FP9 for version 9.1, FP6 for version 9.5, or FP2 for version 9.7. This directly addresses the file access restriction bypass in the DB2DART program.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2010-3194 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2010-3194 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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