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Api ConnectApplication · Ibm

CVE-2019-4155

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-04-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2018.4.1.3 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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 API Connect's Developer Portal 2018.1 and 2018.4.1.3 is impacted by a privilege escalation vulnerability when integrated with an OpenID Connect (OIDC) user registry. IBM X-Force ID: 158544.

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

IBM API Connect Developer Portal versions 2018.1 and 2018.4.1.3 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability when integrated with an OpenID Connect (OIDC) user registry, allowing authenticated users to obtain elevated privileges beyond what their assigned roles should permit.

MitigationApply IBM's security patches for API Connect 2018.x; if patches are unavailable, evaluate disabling OIDC integration temporarily or implement additional access controls as a compensating control.

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
Api ConnectApplication
Affected:>= 2018.1.0, <= 2018.4.1.3

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 API Connect Developer Portal version
    Locate the version number of the IBM API Connect Developer Portal installation through the admin console, command line interface, or version lookup in the installation directory
    Affected if The installed version falls within the range 2018.1.0 through 2018.4.1.3 (inclusive)
  2. Determine if OIDC user registry is in use
    Review the authentication and user registry settings in the API Connect admin console or configuration files to verify whether an OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider is configured as the user registry
    Affected if OIDC integration is enabled and an external OIDC provider is configured as the user registry for the Developer Portal
  3. Examine role mapping configuration
    Inspect the role assignment mappings between the OIDC identity provider and API Connect roles within the user registry configuration
    Affected if Role mappings are defined that could allow authenticated OIDC users to be assigned roles beyond what their OIDC claims should permit
  4. Review user privilege assignments
    Audit existing user accounts that authenticated via OIDC to identify any instances where users possess elevated privileges inconsistent with their OIDC role claims
    Affected if Users authenticated through OIDC have privileges that exceed what their assigned OIDC roles should grant

A user is affected if the Developer Portal version is between 2018.1.0 and 2018.4.1.3 inclusive AND OIDC user registry integration is enabled, allowing authenticated users to potentially gain elevated privileges beyond their assigned roles.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2018.4.1.3
Interim mitigation

Apply IBM's security patches for API Connect 2018.x; if patches are unavailable, evaluate disabling OIDC integration temporarily or implement additional access controls as a compensating control.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Upgrade to the fixed version of IBM API Connect 2018.x (or subsequent release) as specified in IBM security bulletin

  1. Review IBM's official security bulletin for CVE-2019-4155 (IBM X-Force ID: 158544) to obtain the specific fixed version and patch details
  2. Upgrade IBM API Connect to the fixed version as specified in IBM's security bulletin - typically this would be a version beyond 2018.4.1.3
  3. If an immediate upgrade is not possible, consider disabling the OpenID Connect (OIDC) user registry integration as a temporary mitigation
  4. After upgrading, verify that the Developer Portal's user authentication and authorization settings are correctly configured
  5. Test the privilege escalation fix by attempting to verify that regular users cannot escalate privileges through the OIDC integration
Caveat Review IBM's upgrade documentation for potential migration considerations when moving between API Connect releases

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Api Connect Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,680
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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-2019-4155 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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