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Business Automation WorkflowApplication · Ibm

CVE-2021-29753

MEDIUM · 5.9 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-11-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
IBM Business Automation Workflow 18. 19, 20, 21, and IBM Business Process Manager 8.5 and d8.6 transmits or stores authentication credentials, but it uses an insecure method that is susceptible to unauthorized interception and/or retrieval.

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 confidence

IBM Business Automation Workflow (versions 18.19, 20, 21) and IBM Business Process Manager (versions 8.5 and 8.6) transmit or store authentication credentials using an insecure method susceptible to unauthorized interception and/or retrieval. This appears to be a credential handling vulnerability where sensitive authentication data is not properly protected during transmission or at rest.

MitigationReview and update credential handling configurations to use secure transmission protocols (TLS/SSL) and encrypted storage mechanisms. Audit all locations where authentication credentials are stored or transmitted within the affected IBM BPM/BAW deployments.

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
Business Automation WorkflowApplication
Affected:= 18.0.0.0= 19.0.0.0= 20.0.0.0= 21.0.0.0
Business Process ManagerApplication
Affected:= 8.5.0.0= 8.6.0.0

CVSS 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
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine installed IBM BPM/BAW version
    Run the versionInfo command from the installation root directory (bin/versionInfo.sh on Linux/Unix or bin\versionInfo.bat on Windows), or inspect the product.properties file in the installation directory
    Affected if The reported version matches 18.0.0.0, 19.0.0.0, 20.0.0.0, 21.0.0.0 for BAW or 8.5.0.0, 8.6.0.0 for BPM
  2. Locate credential-containing configuration files
    Search the deployment manager and node agent profiles for XML and properties files that may contain authentication data, typically in config/cells/ and config/nodes/ directories, and the BPMDB database configuration
    Affected if Plain-text or weakly encoded passwords are found in configuration XMLs (like 99Local.xml, 100Custom.xml) or properties files without encryption or vaulting
  3. Check LDAP bind password storage method
    Inspect the LDAP security configuration under Security - Security domains in the WebSphere Administration Console, or examine the wimconfig.xml file in the config directory for the LDAP user registry setup
    Affected if The LDAP bind password is stored in plain text or base64-encoded format rather than using WebSphere credential store or a secure vault
  4. Review database connection credentials
    Examine data source configuration XML files in the config/cells/ directory, or check the BPM schema configuration in the installation for database connection parameters
    Affected if Database passwords in data source definitions are stored as plain text or reversibly encoded rather than using WebSphere secure IdAndPasswordRestoration or encrypted stores
  5. Verify SOAP and HTTP transport security
    Check the administrative-config.xml and soap.client.props files in the config directory for the RMI/IIOP and SOAP transport settings, and review any custom authentication modules
    Affected if Credentials are configured to transmit over non-TLS channels or authentication tokens are transmitted without encryption in custom workflows

You are affected if you run any of the listed versions AND your deployment stores or transmits credentials in unencrypted, plaintext, or weakly encoded formats in configuration files or database connections.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Review and update credential handling configurations to use secure transmission protocols (TLS/SSL) and encrypted storage mechanisms. Audit all locations where authentication credentials are stored or transmitted within the affected IBM BPM/BAW deployments.

Fix this in Business Automation Workflow Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-29753 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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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