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Websphere PortalApplication · Ibm

CVE-2016-0209

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-01-27
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 · unedited
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in IBM WebSphere Portal 8.5.0 before CF09 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML 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 confidence

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in IBM WebSphere Portal 8.5.0 prior to CF09 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors. This is a stored or reflected XSS issue in the portal's web interface.

MitigationUpgrade IBM WebSphere Portal 8.5.0 to CF09 or later to address the vulnerability. Apply the latest cumulative fix and validate portal functionality post-upgrade.

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
Websphere PortalApplication
Affected:= 8.5.0.0

CVSS 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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed IBM WebSphere Portal version
    Access the About IBM WebSphere Portal page in the admin console, or check the installation directory for version files, or run the versionInfo command from the bin directory
    Affected if The installed version is 8.5.0.0
  2. Determine the Cumulative Fix (CF) level
    Check the installed fixes via the IBM Installation Manager, or view the fix list in the portal's admin interface, or inspect the CF level displayed in the About page
    Affected if The CF level is earlier than CF09 (e.g., CF00 through CF08) or no CF has been applied to version 8.5.0.0
  3. Verify portal web interface is accessible
    Confirm the portal is running and the web interface (default ports 10039, 10041, or standard HTTP/HTTPS ports) is reachable externally or to untrusted users
    Affected if The portal web interface is exposed to network users who could inject malicious scripts through unspecified vectors

A user is affected if IBM WebSphere Portal version 8.5.0.0 is running with a Cumulative Fix level earlier than CF09 and the portal web interface is accessible.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade IBM WebSphere Portal 8.5.0 to CF09 or later to address the vulnerability. Apply the latest cumulative fix and validate portal functionality post-upgrade.

Fix this in Websphere Portal Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,080
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-0209 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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