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Maximo Application SuiteApplication · Ibm

CVE-2021-29854

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-05-03
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
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 Maximo Asset Management 7.6.1.1 and 7.6.1.2 is vulnerable to HTTP header injection, caused by improper validation of input by the HOST headers. By sending a specially crafted HTTP request, a remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to inject HTTP HOST header, which will allow the attacker to conduct various attacks against the vulnerable system, including cross-site scripting, cache poisoning or session hijacking. IBM X-Force ID: 205680.

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 confidence

IBM Maximo Asset Management versions 7.6.1.1 and 7.6.1.2 fail to properly validate the HOST header in HTTP requests, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary HTTP headers. This HTTP header injection can be leveraged to perform cross-site scripting attacks, cache poisoning, or session hijacking.

MitigationImplement strict validation of the HOST header value, whitelisting allowed domain names, and/or deploy a WAF rule to filter malformed or unexpected HOST headers.

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
Maximo Application SuiteApplication
Affected:= 8.7
Maximo Asset ManagementApplication
Affected:= 7.6.1.1= 7.6.1.2

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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 checks

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

  1. Identify the IBM Maximo Asset Management version
    Check the installed version by reviewing the maximo.properties file or using the Maximo UI: go to System Configuration > Platform Configuration > System Properties and look for the 'version' property, or check the installation directory for version information.
    Affected if The installed version is 7.6.1.1 or 7.6.1.2 specifically.
  2. Identify the IBM Maximo Application Suite version
    Check the installed version by accessing the IBM Maximo Application Suite management interface or reviewing installation documentation and deployment manifests.
    Affected if The installed version is 8.7 specifically.
  3. Determine if the Maximo application is directly exposed or behind a proxy
    Review network architecture and web server configuration (IBM HTTP Server, IBM WebSphere Proxy Server, or third-party reverse proxy) to see if HTTP requests go directly to Maximo or pass through an intermediate server.
    Affected if The application is directly accessible without a reverse proxy or WAF that validates the Host header.
  4. Inspect the IBM WebSphere Application Server HTTP channel configuration
    Access the WebSphere Integrated Solutions Console, navigate to Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers > your_server > Web container settings > Web container transport chains, and check if Host header validation is explicitly enabled or if default behavior is in use.
    Affected if Host header validation is not explicitly configured or enforced on the WebSphere HTTP channel.
  5. Check for WAF or filtering rules targeting Host headers
    Review any Web Application Firewall (WAF), API gateway, or load balancer configuration to determine if there are rules that validate or reject unexpected Host header values.
    Affected if No WAF or filtering rule exists to validate or sanitize Host header values.

You are affected if you are running IBM Maximo Asset Management 7.6.1.1 or 7.6.1.2, or IBM Maximo Application Suite 8.7, and the application is accessible without a reverse proxy or WAF that performs strict Host header validation.

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

Implement strict validation of the HOST header value, whitelisting allowed domain names, and/or deploy a WAF rule to filter malformed or unexpected HOST headers.

Fix this in Maximo Application Suite Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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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-2021-29854 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
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