CVE-2018-1846
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 Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager 5.0 through 5.0.2 and 6.0 through 6.0.6 are vulnerable to a XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to expose sensitive information or consume memory resources. IBM X-Force ID: 150945.
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 confidenceIBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager versions 5.0-5.0.2 and 6.0-6.0.6 are vulnerable to XML External Entity Injection (XXE) when processing XML data. A remote unauthenticated attacker can exploit this to read sensitive files from the server filesystem or internal network resources, or cause denial of service via memory exhaustion.
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>= 5.0, <= 5.0.2>= 6.0, <= 6.0.6CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L
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 if IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager is installedLook for RELM installation directories (commonly under /opt/IBM or C:\Program Files\IBM), check for relm-related services, or search for process named 'relm' or 'IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager' running on the systemAffected if The product is present on the system
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Determine the installed version of RELMCheck the application's About page in the web UI, or look for version files in the installation directory (such as a version.properties, about.html, or manifest file)Affected if The installed version falls within 5.0-5.0.2 or 6.0-6.0.6 (compare your version to these ranges)
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Confirm XML processing is enabledThis vulnerability is triggered when the application processes XML data. Default configurations that accept XML uploads or parse XML content are vulnerable. No specific configuration file to check - the XXE exists in how the application parses XML input.Affected if The application accepts and processes XML data (this is the default behavior for RELM's data import and configuration features)
You are affected if IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager is installed AND your version falls within 5.0-5.0.2 or 6.0-6.0.6 AND the application processes XML input (default behavior).
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 IBM's security patch for this vulnerability. As an interim measure, disable XML external entity processing in the application's XML parser configuration and validate XML input strictly.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-1846 — 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-2018-1846 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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