CVE-2016-3049
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 · uneditedIBM OpenPages GRC Platform 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 is vulnerable to HTML injection. A remote attacker could inject malicious HTML code, which when viewed, would be executed in the victim's Web browser within the security context of the hosting site. IBM X-Force ID: 114712.
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 OpenPages GRC Platform versions 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 contain an HTML injection vulnerability that allows remote attackers to embed malicious HTML code into web pages. When victims view the injected content, the HTML executes within the security context of the hosting site, potentially leading to session hijacking or credential theft.
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= 7.1= 7.2= 7.3CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed IBM OpenPages GRC Platform versionAccess the IBM OpenPages administrative interface or about page. Typically found under Help > About or by accessing the /about endpoint. Alternatively, check installation directories for version manifest files.Affected if The installed version is 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3 exactly.
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Locate user input fields in the applicationNavigate through the OpenPages web interface and identify forms, search fields, or data entry points where users can submit content that gets displayed back in the application.Affected if The application accepts user-supplied input that gets rendered in web pages without validation.
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Test for unencoded HTML reflectionSubmit a harmless test payload containing HTML tags such as <b>test</b> or <script>alert(1)</script> in input fields. Then view the page where this input is displayed to see if the HTML tags render as raw text or execute as HTML.Affected if The submitted HTML tags are rendered as formatted text or execute as HTML rather than being displayed as harmless escaped text.
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Examine HTTP responses for missing encodingUse a browser developer tool or HTTP proxy to capture the response when user input is displayed. Inspect the response body to see if special characters like <, >, " are encoded to their HTML entities (<, >, ") or left raw.Affected if User input containing HTML special characters appears in the response without entity encoding.
A system is affected if it runs IBM OpenPages GRC Platform version 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3 and contains user input fields that render submitted content without proper HTML encoding.
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 proper input validation and output encoding to all user-supplied data before rendering in browsers. Implement context-aware escaping based on where the data is displayed (HTML body, attribute, JavaScript, etc.).
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,968.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-3049 — 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-2016-3049 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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