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Cognos AnalyticsApplication · Ibm

CVE-2025-25032

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 12.0.4 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
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 Cognos Analytics 11.2.0, 11.2.1, 11.2.2, 11.2.3, 11.2.4, 12.0.0, 12.0.1, 12.0.2, 12.0.3, and 12.0.4 could allow an authenticated user to cause a denial of service by sending a specially crafted request that would exhaust memory resources.

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 Cognos Analytics 11.2.0 through 12.0.4 contains a denial of service vulnerability where an authenticated user can send specially crafted requests that cause excessive memory consumption, potentially exhausting server resources and making the application unavailable.

MitigationApply IBM's security patch for this vulnerability. As an interim control, implement request rate limiting and memory usage monitoring on affected Cognos servers.

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
Cognos AnalyticsApplication
Affected:>= 11.2.0, <= 11.2.4>= 12.0.0, <= 12.0.4= 11.2.4

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
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

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 installed IBM Cognos Analytics version
    Access the Cognos Analytics administration portal or check the installation directory for version information. Typically found in the 'About' section of Cognos Administration or in the 'cbs_manifest.xml' file within the installation folder.
    Affected if The installed version is 11.2.0 through 11.2.4, or 12.0.0 through 12.0.4.
  2. Verify Cognos web services are exposed
    Confirm that the Cognos Analytics web interface (typically on port 9300 or similar) is accessible and running. Check if the /bi/v1/disp service endpoint is available.
    Affected if The web application is running and accessible to authenticated users.
  3. Confirm user authentication is enabled
    Check that Cognos authentication providers (such as IBM Cognos TM1, LDAP, or native authentication) are configured and active in the Cognos Configuration tool.
    Affected if User authentication is enabled, allowing authenticated users to send requests to the server.
  4. Monitor server memory usage
    Use operating system tools (task manager, top, or similar) to observe memory consumption of the Cognos server processes, particularly during periods of user activity.
    Affected if Memory usage grows abnormally or approaches exhaustion during normal authenticated user sessions.
  5. Review server logs for DoS indicators
    Examine Cognos server logs (typically in the 'logs' folder) for repeated error messages related to memory allocation failures, timeout errors, or service unavailability following authenticated user requests.
    Affected if Logs show memory exhaustion errors or service degradation after authenticated user activity.

A system is affected if it runs IBM Cognos Analytics version 11.2.0-11.2.4 or 12.0.0-12.0.4 with the web interface accessible to authenticated users.

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 a release after 12.0.4
Interim mitigation

Apply IBM's security patch for this vulnerability. As an interim control, implement request rate limiting and memory usage monitoring on affected Cognos servers.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.2.5+ or 12.0.5+ (latest available version)

  1. 1. Back up your current IBM Cognos Analytics configuration and database before proceeding with any upgrade.
  2. 2. Download IBM Cognos Analytics version 11.2.5 or later (for the 11.2.x line) from IBM Fix Central or your authorized IBM distribution channel.
  3. 3. If using version 12.x, download version 12.0.5 or later instead.
  4. 4. Stop all IBM Cognos Analytics services before applying the upgrade.
  5. 5. Apply the upgrade following IBM's standard installation documentation for your platform.
  6. 6. Verify that all services start successfully after the upgrade.
  7. 7. Test that the specially crafted request no longer causes memory exhaustion.
Caveat Standard upgrade risks apply - test in non-production environment first, review IBM release notes for any deprecation notices

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

Fix this in Cognos Analytics Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing10.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,580
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,928.

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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-2025-25032 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