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Robotic Process AutomationApplication · Ibm

CVE-2022-22503

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-10-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 21.0.1 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 Robotic Process Automation 21.0.0 could allow a remote attacker to hijack the clicking action of the victim. By persuading a victim to visit a malicious Web site, a remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to hijack the victim's click actions and possibly launch further attacks against the victim. IBM X-Force ID: 227125.

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

This is a clickjacking vulnerability in IBM Robotic Process Automation 21.0.0. An attacker can embed the vulnerable application in a transparent iframe on a malicious website, overlaying deceptive clickable elements to hijack the victim's legitimate click actions within the RPA interface.

MitigationImplement X-Frame-Options: DENY or SAMEORIGIN header, or configure Content Security Policy with frame-ancestors directive to prevent the application from being embedded in iframes.

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
Robotic Process AutomationApplication
Affected:< 21.0.1
Robotic Process Automation As A ServiceApplication
Affected:< 21.0.1

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

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

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

  1. Identify the installed IBM RPA version
    Access the IBM RPA administrative console or check the product's About section to find the exact version number installed in your environment
    Affected if The installed version is 21.0.0 or any version lower than 21.0.1
  2. Verify if X-Frame-Options header is present
    Use browser developer tools or a web vulnerability scanner to inspect the HTTP response headers from your IBM RPA application URL. Look for X-Frame-Options header with DENY or SAMEORIGIN value
    Affected if The X-Frame-Options header is missing or set to a permissive value such as ALLOW-FROM (non-standard) or is completely absent from responses
  3. Check Content Security Policy for frame-ancestors
    Inspect the HTTP response headers for Content-Security-Policy and verify if the frame-ancestors directive is configured. You can use browser dev tools Network tab or command-line tools like curl -I to fetch headers
    Affected if Content-Security-Policy header is missing, does not include frame-ancestors, or allows all origins via wildcard (*) in the directive
  4. Test iframe embeddability
    Create a test HTML page with an iframe pointing to your IBM RPA application URL. Load the page in a browser and verify whether the application loads within the iframe
    Affected if The IBM RPA application successfully renders inside the iframe without being blocked by browser security restrictions

You are affected if your IBM RPA version is below 21.0.1 AND the application can be embedded in an iframe (missing X-Frame-Options or CSP frame-ancestors protection).

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 21.0.1 or later
Fixed in 21.0.1
Interim mitigation

Implement X-Frame-Options: DENY or SAMEORIGIN header, or configure Content Security Policy with frame-ancestors directive to prevent the application from being embedded in iframes.

Recommended fix High confidence

21.0.1

  1. Download IBM Robotic Process Automation version 21.0.1 or later from IBM's official distribution channels
  2. Follow IBM's standard upgrade procedure for the Robotic Process Automation product
  3. Verify the upgrade was successful by confirming the installed version is 21.0.1 or higher

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Robotic Process Automation Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2022-22503 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data