CVE-2018-6590
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 · uneditedCA API Developer Portal 4.x, prior to v4.2.5.3 and v4.2.7.1, has an unspecified reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability.
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 confidenceReflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in CA API Developer Portal 4.x allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary JavaScript or HTML via unsanitized user input that gets reflected back in the HTTP response without proper output encoding.
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>= 4.2.0, < 4.2.5.3= 4.0= 4.1CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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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Confirm CA API Developer Portal is installedIdentify the product by checking for CA/Broadcom API Developer Portal services, processes, or web applications running on your system. Common indicators include ports 8443, 443, or 8080 with API portal login pages or documentation endpoints.Affected if The product is present on the system
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Locate the installed versionFind the version number in the portal's about page, admin dashboard, configuration files (such as portal-conf.properties or version.info), or by querying the API portal's /health or /api/version endpoints if available.Affected if The version cannot be determined or is not visible
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Compare version against affected rangesMatch your installed version to the affected ranges: 4.0, 4.1, or any version from 4.2.0 up to 4.2.5.2 inclusive. Versions outside these ranges (below 4.0, or 4.2.5.3 and above, or 4.2.7.1 and above) are NOT affected.Affected if The installed version falls within 4.0, 4.1, or >= 4.2.0 but < 4.2.5.3
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Identify user input reflection pointsReview HTTP responses from the portal when supplying user-controlled input (query parameters, form fields, headers) to see if the input is returned verbatim in the response without encoding. Test common input fields like search boxes, username fields, or API endpoint parameters.Affected if User-supplied input is reflected in HTTP responses without HTML encoding or sanitization
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Check for output encoding or input validationInspect the portal configuration, custom scripts, or any deployed web application firewall (WAF) rules for presence of output encoding mechanisms (HTML entity encoding, JavaScript escaping) or input validation logic applied to user inputs before reflection.Affected if No output encoding or input validation is implemented on the portal endpoints
Your environment is affected if CA API Developer Portal is installed and the version is 4.0, 4.1, or between 4.2.0 and 4.2.5.2 inclusive, and user input can be reflected in responses without 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 data4.2.5.3
Upgrade to CA API Developer Portal v4.2.5.3, v4.2.7.1, or later. Alternatively, implement input validation and output encoding on affected endpoints as a compensating control until patching is feasible.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6590 — 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-2018-6590 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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