CVE-2013-5424
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 Flex System Manager (FSM) 1.3.0 allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions, and create new user accounts or execute tasks, by leveraging an expired password for the system-level account.
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 · high confidenceIBM Flex System Manager 1.3.0 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability where system-level accounts with expired passwords can still perform privileged operations, including creating new user accounts and executing system tasks, bypassing intended access restrictions.
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= 1.3.0CVSS 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/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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Identify IBM Flex System Manager versionCheck the installed version of IBM Flex System Manager in the system documentation or by querying the management interface for the product version informationAffected if Version is exactly 1.3.0
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Locate system-level accountsAccess the user management console or user account database within IBM Flex System Manager and enumerate accounts with system-level or administrative privilegesAffected if System-level accounts exist in the environment
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Check password expiration statusReview the password expiration settings for system-level accounts to determine which accounts have password expiration policies enabledAffected if Password expiration is configured for any system-level accounts
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Test privileged operations with expired credentialsUsing a system-level account with an expired password, attempt to perform privileged operations such as creating a new user account or executing system tasks through the management interfaceAffected if Privileged operations succeed despite the password being expired
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Review account lockout and session settingsInspect the authentication and session management configuration to verify whether expired passwords trigger automatic session termination or account lockingAffected if No automatic session termination or account lockout occurs upon password expiration
The environment is affected if IBM Flex System Manager version 1.3.0 is running and system-level accounts with expired passwords can successfully perform privileged operations.
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 available IBM patches for this vulnerability; if no patch exists, implement compensating controls such as immediately disabling accounts upon password expiration or implementing strict session termination at password expiration events.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-5424 — 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-2013-5424 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data