CVE-2015-5970
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 ChangePassword RPC method in Novell ZENworks Configuration Management (ZCM) 11.3 and 11.4 allows remote attackers to conduct XPath injection attacks, and read arbitrary text files, via a malformed query involving a system entity reference.
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 confidenceThe ChangePassword RPC method in Novell ZENworks Configuration Management (ZCM) 11.3 and 11.4 contains an XPath injection vulnerability. Remote attackers can exploit this by sending malformed queries containing system entity references, allowing them to read arbitrary text files from the server.
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= 11.3.0= 11.3.1= 11.3.2= 11.4.0= 11.4.1CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/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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Confirm ZCM installation and versionLocate the ZENworks Configuration Management installation and retrieve its version information from the product binaries, documentation, or system inventoryAffected if The installed version is 11.3.0, 11.3.1, 11.3.2, 11.4.0, or 11.4.1 exactly
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Identify ChangePassword RPC method availabilityCheck the ZCM configuration or service documentation to determine whether the ChangePassword RPC method is enabled or exposed as part of the systemAffected if The ChangePassword RPC method is present and enabled in the ZCM environment
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Assess network exposure of ZCM servicesDetermine if the ZCM server and its RPC endpoints are accessible from the network, as the vulnerability is remotely exploitableAffected if The ZCM services are reachable over the network without adequate access restrictions
The environment is affected if ZCM version 11.3.0 through 11.4.1 is installed and the ChangePassword RPC method is accessible, allowing remote XPath injection attacks.
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 vendor patch from Novell for ZCM 11.3/11.4, or upgrade to a patched version. If no patch is available, restrict network access to the ZCM services and consider disabling the ChangePassword RPC method.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5970 — 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-2015-5970 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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