CVE-2021-20550
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 Content Navigator 3.0.CD is vulnerable to cross-site scripting. This vulnerability allows users to embed arbitrary JavaScript code in the Web UI thus altering the intended functionality potentially leading to credentials disclosure within a trusted session. IBM X-Force ID: 199168.
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 Content Navigator 3.0.CD contains a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that allows users to embed arbitrary JavaScript code into the Web UI. This can alter the application's intended functionality and potentially lead to credential disclosure through session hijacking within a trusted session.
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= 3.0.0CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 installed IBM Content Navigator versionAccess the IBM Content Navigator administration console or about page, typically found at /navigator/about.jsp or through the desktop admin tool. Check installation logs or version metadata files in the product installation directory.Affected if The installed version is exactly 3.0.0 (3.0.CD)
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Confirm Web UI is accessibleVerify that the IBM Content Navigator web interface is deployed and reachable. Attempt to access the main login page or user portal.Affected if The Web UI is accessible to users, which is required for the stored XSS to be exploitable
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Determine if user-submitted content is stored and displayedIdentify features in the web interface that accept and store user input such as comments, annotations, descriptions, or custom metadata fields. Review which user roles have access to create or modify stored content.Affected if Users with access to store content in the application can potentially inject malicious JavaScript that will be rendered to other users
You are affected if IBM Content Navigator version 3.0.0 is deployed and users have access to store content in the Web UI where it gets rendered to other users.
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's vendor patch for CVE-2021-20550. Until patched, implement input validation and output encoding on all user-supplied data, and configure a strict Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate XSS execution.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-20550 — 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-2021-20550 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