Access Governance SuiteApplication · Netiq

CVE-2016-1597

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-03-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
A logged-in user in NetIQ Access Governance Suite 6.0 through 6.4 could escalate privileges to administrator.

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

NetIQ Access Governance Suite versions 6.0 through 6.4 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where an authenticated user can elevate their privileges to administrator level. This allows a standard logged-in user to gain full administrative access to the identity governance platform.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch or upgrade to a patched version of NetIQ Access Governance Suite. Restrict administrative access to only necessary personnel until the fix is 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
Access Governance SuiteApplication
Affected:= 6.0= 6.1= 6.2= 6.3= 6.4

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

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

  1. Identify the installed NetIQ Access Governance Suite version
    Locate the version information in the product's about page, installation directory, or by querying the product's system information interface. Check the main administration console or the installed program files for a version manifest or release notes.
    Affected if The installed version is 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, or 6.4
  2. Confirm user authentication is enabled
    Verify that the identity governance platform has user authentication configured and active. Check the authentication settings in the administration console to confirm users can log in.
    Affected if User authentication is active and the system accepts standard user logins
  3. Determine if non-administrative user accounts exist
    Review the user directory or user management section of the Access Governance Suite to identify accounts with standard or limited privileges as opposed to full administrative privileges.
    Affected if Standard user accounts with limited privileges are present in the system
  4. Verify administrative access controls are in place
    Examine the role-based access control configuration to confirm which users are assigned to administrative roles versus standard roles.
    Affected if The system contains users assigned to standard roles who could potentially access the privilege escalation pathway

If the installed version falls within 6.0 through 6.4 and the system has authenticated standard users, the environment is vulnerable to privilege escalation.

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 the vendor-supplied patch or upgrade to a patched version of NetIQ Access Governance Suite. Restrict administrative access to only necessary personnel until the fix is applied.

Fix this in Access Governance Suite Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,840
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-1597 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-1597 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