CVE-2021-20482
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 Cloud Pak for Automation 20.0.2 and 20.0.3 IF002 are vulnerable to an XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to expose sensitive information or consume memory resources. IBM X-Force ID: 197504.
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 Cloud Pak for Automation versions 20.0.2 and 20.0.3 IF002 contains a vulnerability where the XML parser processes external entities, allowing a remote attacker to inject malicious XML that can expose sensitive file system information or exhaust memory resources through entity expansion attacks.
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= 20.0.2= 20.0.3CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L
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 Cloud Pak for Automation versionRun 'oc get icp4aCluster -n <namespace> -o jsonpath={.status.version}' or check the IBM Cloud Pak UI under Administration > Cluster Information to find the installed versionAffected if The installed version is 20.0.2 or 20.0.3
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Confirm exact version numberReview the version details in the IBM Cloud Pak for Automation operator or operand deployment manifests in your OpenShift/Kubernetes namespaceAffected if The version listed is exactly 20.0.2 or 20.0.3 (no IF002 patch applied)
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Check if XXE mitigation has been appliedReview IBM fix lists or release notes for the deployed environment to confirm whether IF002 or later has been appliedAffected if No IF002 or later fix pack has been applied to versions 20.0.2 or 20.0.3
A user is affected if IBM Cloud Pak for Automation version 20.0.2 or 20.0.3 is running without the IF002 patch applied, as these versions contain the vulnerable XML parser with external entity processing enabled.
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 dataApply IBM Cloud Pak for Automation IF002 or later, which contains the XXE fix. Additionally, disable external entity processing and DTD parsing in XML parsers as a defense-in-depth measure.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing10.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-20482 — 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-2021-20482 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