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Websphere Application ServerApplication · Ibm

CVE-2016-0389

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-07-07
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Admin Center in IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) 8.5.5.2 through 8.5.5.9 Liberty before Liberty Fix Pack 16.0.0.2 allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information 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

IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty 8.5.5.2 through 8.5.5.9 contains an information disclosure vulnerability in the Admin Center component that allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via unspecified vectors.

MitigationApply Liberty Fix Pack 16.0.0.2 or later to address the vulnerability. Consider restricting network access to the Admin Center interface as a compensating control until the patch can be applied.

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 Application ServerApplication
Affected:= 8.5.5.2= 8.5.5.3= 8.5.5.4= 8.5.5.5= 8.5.5.6= 8.5.5.7= 8.5.5.8= 8.5.5.9

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify installed Liberty version
    Run 'java -version' and check the Liberty installation directory for version.info or use 'server version' command from the bin directory
    Affected if Version is 8.5.5.2, 8.5.5.3, 8.5.5.4, 8.5.5.5, 8.5.5.6, 8.5.5.7, 8.5.5.8, or 8.5.5.9
  2. Determine if Admin Center feature is enabled
    Review the server.xml configuration file (typically in the wlp/usr/servers/<serverName>/ directory) for the 'adminCenter-1.0' feature entry
    Affected if The adminCenter-1.0 feature is present in the server.xml feature list
  3. Check Admin Center network exposure
    Verify network listeners and firewall rules to determine if the Admin Center port (default 9443) is exposed to untrusted networks
    Affected if Admin Center is accessible from untrusted network locations

You are affected if your WebSphere Liberty version is 8.5.5.2 through 8.5.5.9 AND the Admin Center feature is enabled and exposed to network attackers.

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

Apply Liberty Fix Pack 16.0.0.2 or later to address the vulnerability. Consider restricting network access to the Admin Center interface as a compensating control until the patch can be applied.

Fix this in Websphere Application Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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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-2016-0389 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
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