dbcve.org
Guardium Data ProtectionApplication · Ibm

CVE-2025-3473

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
69/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 Security Guardium 12.1 could allow a local privileged user to escalate their privileges to root due to insecure inherited permissions created by the program.

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 Security Guardium 12.1 contains insecure file permissions that allow a local user with existing elevated privileges to gain root access. The vulnerability stems from the program creating files or directories with overly permissive ownership or permissions that are then inherited, enabling privilege escalation.

MitigationApply vendor-provided patch or manually review and correct file/directory permissions on Guardium to ensure proper restrictive ownership and permissions, removing world-writable permissions and ensuring only authorized users have access.

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
Guardium Data ProtectionApplication
Affected:= 11.5= 12.1

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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. Confirm Guardium version
    Run command to display installed Guardium version (e.g., 'guardium_version' or check /opt/guardium/version file depending on installation)
    Affected if Version is 11.5 or 12.1 (these are the affected versions)
  2. Identify Guardium installation directory
    Locate the primary Guardium installation path (commonly /opt/guardium or /var/guardium)
    Affected if Guardium is installed and version is 11.5 or 12.1
  3. Check for world-writable files and directories
    Run: 'find <guardium_path> -perm -002 -type f' and 'find <guardium_path> -perm -002 -type d' to find all world-writable items
    Affected if Any Guardium system files or directories are world-writable (permissions include 'w' for others)
  4. Check for unusual file ownership
    Run: 'ls -la <guardium_path>' to review ownership and permissions on key directories, look for files owned by unexpected users or with permissive access
    Affected if Files or directories are owned by unprivileged users or allow access beyond intended administrators
  5. Check for SUID/SGID files that could enable escalation
    Run: 'find <guardium_path> -perm /6000 -type f' to find files with special privilege bits set
    Affected if SUID/SGID files exist in Guardium directories that should not have these bits

Environment is affected if Guardium version is 11.5 or 12.1 AND world-writable files/directories exist in the Guardium installation that could be exploited for privilege escalation.

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

Apply vendor-provided patch or manually review and correct file/directory permissions on Guardium to ensure proper restrictive ownership and permissions, removing world-writable permissions and ensuring only authorized users have access.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection version 12.1 with IBM fix, or subsequent release containing the correction

  1. Check IBM's official security bulletin for CVE-2025-3473 for detailed patch or upgrade instructions
  2. Identify the current installed version of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection
  3. Apply the IBM-provided fix, which typically involves upgrading to a version beyond 12.1 that contains the security correction
  4. Verify the fix by checking that the insecure inherited permissions have been corrected on affected binaries and directories
  5. Restart affected Guardium services as required by the patch
Caveat Review IBM's patch documentation for any required configuration changes or service restarts

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

Fix this in Guardium Data Protection Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-3473 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2025-3473 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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