CVE-2020-4942
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 Curam Social Program Management 7.0.9 and 7.0.11 is vulnerable to cross-site request forgery which could allow an attacker to execute malicious and unauthorized actions transmitted from a user that the website trusts. IBM X-Force ID: 191942.
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 Curam Social Program Management versions 7.0.9 and 7.0.11 are vulnerable to cross-site request forgery (CSRF). The application lacks proper anti-CSRF tokens or origin validation, allowing authenticated users to unknowingly execute unintended state-changing actions via malicious requests crafted by attackers.
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= 7.0.9.0= 7.0.11.0CVSS 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
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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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Verify IBM Curam Social Program Management versionLocate the installed IBM Curam Social Program Management version information. This is typically found in the product's About section, version.properties file, or administrative console. Consult IBM documentation for your specific installation method to find the exact version number.Affected if The installed version is exactly 7.0.9.0 or exactly 7.0.11.0
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Identify state-changing operations in the applicationReview the application for forms and AJAX endpoints that perform state-changing actions such as creating, modifying, or deleting user data, changing settings, or submitting applications. Document all POST, PUT, and DELETE endpoints.Affected if The application contains state-changing forms or AJAX requests that perform sensitive operations
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Inspect forms for anti-CSRF token presenceExamine the HTML source code of state-changing forms within the application. Look for hidden input fields containing anti-CSRF tokens, or check if the application includes token headers in AJAX requests. Compare multiple instances of the same form to see if tokens are dynamically generated per session.Affected if State-changing forms lack anti-CSRF token fields or use static tokens that do not change per session/request
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Check server-side Origin/Referer header validationAnalyze server-side code or configuration to determine if the application validates the Origin or Referer HTTP headers on state-changing requests. This may involve reviewing application server configuration, web.xml files, or custom filter implementations.Affected if The application does not validate that requests originate from trusted sources via Origin or Referer headers
A user is affected if they run IBM Curam Social Program Management version 7.0.9.0 or 7.0.11.0 and the application lacks anti-CSRF tokens on state-changing operations or does not validate request origins.
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 dataImplement anti-CSRF tokens on all state-changing operations (forms, AJAX requests) and validate Origin/Referer headers server-side to ensure requests originate from trusted sources.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,040.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-4942 — 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-2020-4942 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