CVE-2012-4840
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 · uneditedIBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) 8.4.1 before IF1, 10.1 before IF2, 10.1.1 before IF2, and 10.2 before IF1 allows remote attackers to conduct XPath injection attacks, and call XPath extension functions, via unspecified vectors.
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 confidenceIBM Cognos Business Intelligence contains an XPath injection vulnerability that allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary XPath queries and call XPath extension functions via unspecified input vectors. The vulnerability affects multiple versions (8.4.1, 10.1, 10.1.1, 10.2) before their respective Interim Fixes.
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= 8.4.1= 10.1= 10.1.1= 10.2CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
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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Identify installed Cognos BI versionLocate the version information through the Cognos Configuration tool (go to About > Installation), check the installation directory for version manifest files, or access the Cognos Administration portal and view the system information. Compare the installed version against the affected list: 8.4.1, 10.1, 10.1.1, 10.2.Affected if The installed version is exactly 8.4.1, 10.1, 10.1.1, or 10.2.
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Verify Cognos web gateway is accessibleConfirm the Cognos BI dispatcher or gateway URL is reachable from the network. This is typically at /cognos on the web server. Check whether the portal is exposed and accepts user authentication.Affected if The Cognos web interface is accessible and accepts user input.
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Identify XPath-based input pointsReview any custom reports, data sources, or integrations that construct XPath queries from user-supplied parameters. Check report specifications and content manager data for XPath expressions that incorporate request parameters or form inputs.Affected if User-supplied input (query parameters, report filters, search fields) is directly concatenated into XPath query strings without sanitization.
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Review input validation controlsExamine the application layer and web application firewall configurations for input validation rules that sanitize or restrict special XPath characters (such as quotes, brackets, and axis operators) in user inputs that reach XPath-dependent functionality.Affected if No input validation or sanitization is present for fields used in XPath query construction.
You are affected if your installed IBM Cognos Business Intelligence version is exactly 8.4.1, 10.1, 10.1.1, or 10.2 and the web interface is accessible with user input being used in XPath query contexts without sanitization.
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 Interim Fix (IF1 for 8.4.1 and 10.2, IF2 for 10.1 and 10.1.1) or upgrade to a patched version. If immediate patching is not feasible, implement strict input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data that could be used in XPath query construction.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-4840 — 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-2012-4840 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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