CVE-2019-4620
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 MQ Appliance 8.0 and 9.0 LTS could allow a local attacker to bypass security restrictions caused by improper validation of environment variables. IBM X-Force ID: 168863.
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 MQ Appliance versions 8.0 and 9.0 LTS fail to properly validate environment variables, allowing a local attacker to manipulate these variables to bypass security restrictions and gain unauthorized access or privileges within the appliance.
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>= 8.0.0.0, < 8.0.0.14>= 9.1.0, < 9.1.4>= 9.1.0.0, < 9.1.0.4CVSS 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:3.1/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify IBM MQ Appliance installationRun the command 'runmqappliancinfo' or check for IBM MQ directories in /var/mqm or /opt/mqm. On the appliance CLI, use 'show version' or 'display mq-version' to confirm it is an IBM MQ Appliance system.Affected if The system is not an IBM MQ Appliance, this CVE does not apply.
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Determine the installed IBM MQ Appliance versionRun 'dspmqver' or 'runmqchi -version' from the command line. Alternatively, check the appliance management interface for the MQ version information. Note the full version number including patch level.Affected if The installed version is not within 8.0.0.0 through 8.0.0.13, 9.1.0 through 9.1.3, or 9.1.0.0 through 9.1.0.3, the system is not affected by this CVE.
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Verify environment variable handling existsAccess the appliance command line interface and review current environment variable configurations. Check if custom or user-defined environment variables can be set or modified within the appliance operating system context.Affected if The system allows arbitrary environment variable manipulation without validation mechanisms in place, indicating the vulnerable condition exists.
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Inspect security controls for environment variablesReview IBM MQ Appliance configuration files and policies related to environment variable validation. Check the mqccreds configuration or security plugin settings that control environment variable handling.Affected if No environment variable validation controls are configured or the validation mechanism can be bypassed, the system remains vulnerable.
A system is affected if it is an IBM MQ Appliance running version 8.0.0.0-8.0.0.13, 9.1.0-9.1.3, or 9.1.0.0-9.1.0.3, AND environment variables can be manipulated without proper validation controls.
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 data8.0.0.149.1.0.49.1.4
Apply IBM security patches for CVE-2019-4620 to affected IBM MQ Appliance installations. Review and harden environment variable configurations to ensure proper validation controls are in place.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 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 $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-4620 — 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-2019-4620 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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