Security GuardiumApplication · Ibm

CVE-2018-1498

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-10-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
IBM Security Guardium EcoSystem 10.5 stores user credentials in plain in clear text which can be read by a local user. IBM X-Force ID: 141223.

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 · high confidence

IBM Security Guardium EcoSystem 10.5 stores user credentials in plaintext within its storage system, allowing any local user with filesystem or database access to read those credentials directly without any authentication or decryption.

MitigationMigrate credential storage to use salted password hashing (for authentication credentials) or proper encryption with secure key management. Existing plaintext credentials must be identified, securely hashed/encrypted, and the storage locations must be protected with appropriate file/database access controls.

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
Security GuardiumApplication
Affected:= 10.5

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/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. Confirm IBM Security Guardium version
    Run the Guardium version command or check the installed package version to verify the installation is version 10.5
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 10.5
  2. Locate credential storage locations
    Identify all storage locations where Guardium stores user credentials - this includes database tables (such as user account tables) and configuration files that may contain stored credentials
    Affected if Credentials are stored in any location accessible to local filesystem or database users
  3. Examine stored credentials for plaintext
    Inspect the raw credential data in the identified storage locations to determine if passwords or sensitive credentials are stored in plaintext (readable text) rather than being hashed or encrypted
    Affected if Credentials are stored in plaintext format without any hashing or encryption applied
  4. Verify local user access to credential storage
    Check file system permissions on credential storage files and database access controls to determine if local unprivileged users can read credential data directly
    Affected if Local users with standard filesystem or database access can read stored credentials without authentication

A user is affected if they are running IBM Security Guardium version 10.5 and have credential data stored in plaintext in accessible storage locations, allowing any local user with filesystem or database access to read credentials without authentication.

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

Migrate credential storage to use salted password hashing (for authentication credentials) or proper encryption with secure key management. Existing plaintext credentials must be identified, securely hashed/encrypted, and the storage locations must be protected with appropriate file/database access controls.

Fix this in Security Guardium Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
25.0 hours of engineering $4,400
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,040.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-1498 — 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-2018-1498 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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