CVE-2016-0391
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 IBM Watson Developer Cloud services on Bluemix platforms do not properly generate random numbers for service-instance credentials, which makes it easier for remote attackers to defeat cryptographic protection mechanisms via a brute-force attack.
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 Watson Developer Cloud services on Bluemix platforms use a weak random number generator when creating service-instance credentials, making the credential tokens predictable and susceptible to brute-force attacks. An attacker who can predict or brute-force credentials can impersonate valid service instances and access protected data or APIs.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 Watson services on Bluemix/IBM CloudLog in to the IBM Cloud console and navigate to the Resource List. Expand the Services section and look for any IBM Watson services such as Watson Assistant, Watson Discovery, Watson Natural Language Understanding, or other Watson Developer Cloud services.Affected if Any IBM Watson service instance exists on the Bluemix/IBM Cloud platform.
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Check credential creation timestampsIn the IBM Cloud console, access each Watson service instance. Navigate to the Service Credentials section. Note the creation date of each credential. Alternatively, use the IBM Cloud CLI: 'ibmcloud resource service-keys' to list credentials with their creation timestamps.Affected if Credentials were created before the vulnerability was patched (any credential created prior to the fix date could be affected).
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Review access logs for unusual API activityCheck the Watson service instance's usage and access logs through the IBM Cloud console or API. Look for API calls originating from unexpected IP addresses, at unusual times, or with unusual frequency patterns that might indicate credential compromise.Affected if Access logs show API calls that do not match your known usage patterns or originate from unauthorized sources.
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Verify credential uniqueness and complexityExamine the format and structure of your service credentials (API keys or tokens). Check if credentials appear to follow a predictable pattern or have limited character entropy. Compare multiple credentials if available to see if they share common prefixes or structural similarities.Affected if Credentials show predictable patterns, common prefixes across different instances, or obviously low complexity.
A user is affected if they have any IBM Watson Developer Cloud service instances on Bluemix/IBM Cloud with credentials created prior to the vulnerability fix, as those credentials may be predictable due to the weak random number generator.
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 dataImmediately rotate all Watson service credentials on affected Bluemix/IBM Cloud instances. Review access logs for unauthorized use of credentials created prior to the fix. Consider implementing additional authentication layers such as API keys with client ID/secret pairs.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-0391 — 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-2016-0391 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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