CVE-2020-4490
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 Business Automation Workflow 18 and 19, and IBM Business Process Manager 8.0, 8.5, and 8.6 could allow a remote attacker to bypass security restrictions, caused by a reverse tabnabbing flaw. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability and redirect a vitcim to a phishing site. IBM X-Force ID: 181989
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 Business Automation Workflow and Business Process Manager contain a reverse tabnabbing vulnerability where external links do not use the rel="noopener noreferrer" attribute. This allows a malicious page opened via the application to modify the window.opener location and redirect users to phishing sites.
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= 18.0.0.0= 19.0.0.0= 8.0.0.0= 8.5.0.0= 8.6.0.0CVSS 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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Identify the installed product versionLocate the version information for IBM Business Automation Workflow or IBM Business Process Manager in your environment (typically found in installation logs, about pages, or product-specific configuration files)Affected if The installed version matches 18.0.0.0 or 19.0.0.0 for Business Automation Workflow, or 8.0.0.0, 8.5.0.0, or 8.6.0.0 for Business Process Manager
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Identify external links in the applicationSearch the application web resources (JSP files, HTML files, portlet files, or any UI component templates) for anchor tags with href attributes pointing to external domainsAffected if The application contains any anchor tags linking to external URLs
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Inspect the rel attribute on external linksFor each external link identified, examine whether the rel attribute includes both 'noopener' and 'noreferrer' values (for example, rel='noopener noreferrer' or rel='noopener noreferrer target=_blank')Affected if Any external link is missing the rel='noopener noreferrer' attribute or has an incomplete attribute that only includes one of the two values
You are affected if your installed version matches one of the affected versions listed AND any external link in the application is missing the complete rel='noopener noreferrer' attribute.
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 dataAdd rel='noopener noreferrer' to all external links in the application to prevent the opened page from accessing and redirecting the original window.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-4490 — 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-2020-4490 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data