CVE-2021-39072
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 Security Guardium 11.3 could allow a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information, caused by the failure to properly enable HTTP Strict Transport Security. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to obtain sensitive information using man in the middle techniques. IBM X-Force ID: 215581.
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 Security Guardium 11.3 fails to enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), meaning the server does not send the Strict-Transport-Security header in responses. This allows man-in-the-middle attackers to intercept communications and obtain sensitive information by performing protocol downgrade attacks or session hijacking.
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= 11.3CVSS 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
- 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify the installed IBM Security Guardium versionDetermine the installed version of IBM Security Guardium in your environment and confirm it is exactly version 11.3Affected if The installed version is IBM Security Guardium 11.3 (exact match)
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Check for HSTS header in HTTPS responsesSend an HTTPS request to the Guardium web server and inspect the response headers for the presence of Strict-Transport-SecurityAffected if The Strict-Transport-Security header is missing from HTTPS responses
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Inspect web server configuration for HSTS settingsExamine the Guardium web server or reverse proxy configuration files for HSTS-related settings (strict-transport-security directive)Affected if HSTS is not configured or the header is not being sent
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Verify if HTTP to HTTPS redirect is enforcedTest whether the server responds to plain HTTP requests and whether it forces redirect to HTTPSAffected if HTTP is not being redirected to HTTPS or HSTS preload is not enabled
You are affected if you are running IBM Security Guardium version 11.3 and the Strict-Transport-Security header is not present in HTTPS responses from the server.
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 dataEnable HSTS by configuring the web server to send the Strict-Transport-Security header with an appropriate max-age value, and verify that all traffic is served over HTTPS.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-39072 — 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-2021-39072 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