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MqApplication · Ibm

CVE-2025-36128

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-10-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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 MQ 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4 LTS and 9.3, 9.4 CD is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by improper enforcement of the timeout on individual read operations. By conducting slowloris-type attacks, a remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of service.

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 MQ fails to enforce timeouts on individual read operations, allowing remote attackers to conduct Slowloris-style attacks. Attackers open connections and send partial data incrementally, holding connections open indefinitely and exhausting server resources (connections, threads, memory), resulting in denial of service.

MitigationImplement connection read timeouts at the application or network level (load balancer/proxy), consider deploying a WAF with Slowloris protection, and apply IBM's patches when available for affected versions 9.1-9.4.

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
MqApplication
Affected:= 9.1.0.0= 9.2.0.0= 9.3.0= 9.3.0.0= 9.4.0= 9.4.0.0

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. Verify IBM MQ is installed
    Check for IBM MQ installation directories (commonly /opt/mqm on Linux or C:\Program Files\IBM\MQ on Windows), or run the command 'dspmqver' if available, or look for MQ services running on the system
    Affected if IBM MQ software is present on the system
  2. Determine installed IBM MQ version
    Run 'dspmqver -a' or 'dspmqver' to display version information, or check the installation logs or /opt/mqm/version.ini file on Linux
    Affected if The displayed version matches any of the affected versions: 9.1.0.0, 9.2.0.0, 9.3.0, 9.3.0.0, 9.4.0, or 9.4.0.0
  3. Confirm listener ports are exposed
    Check IBM MQ listener configuration by running 'runmqsc -c' and using 'DISPLAY LISTENER(*) ALL' or checking qm.ini / mqs.ini configuration files for listener definitions and port bindings
    Affected if Network listeners are configured and accessible from untrusted networks (this makes the Slowloris attack feasible)
  4. Verify no application-level read timeouts are configured
    Review queue manager configuration (qm.ini) for any ChannelTimeout or HeartbeatInterval settings, and check if any custom channel exit or application-level timeout logic has been implemented
    Affected if No explicit read timeouts are configured at the application or channel level, leaving connections vulnerable to indefinite hold
  5. Check network-level timeout protections
    Inspect any load balancer, reverse proxy, or firewall configurations in front of IBM MQ for timeout settings (such as idle-timeout, read-header-timeout, or connection-timeout directives)
    Affected if No network-level timeout protections are in place to mitigate Slowloris-style attacks

The environment is affected if IBM MQ version 9.1.0.0 through 9.4.0.0 is installed with exposed network listeners and no timeout protections configured at any layer.

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

Implement connection read timeouts at the application or network level (load balancer/proxy), consider deploying a WAF with Slowloris protection, and apply IBM's patches when available for affected versions 9.1-9.4.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

IBM MQ 9.4 LTS (latest fix pack) - the description indicates 9.4 LTS and 9.4 CD are affected but have fixes available

  1. Check current IBM MQ version using 'dspmqver' command or MQ console
  2. Review IBM MQ support lifecycle for available fix packs at https://www.ibm.com/support/lifecycle
  3. Apply the latest IBM MQ 9.4 LTS fix pack (or the appropriate fix pack for your release line) which contains the fix for CVE-2025-36128
  4. After upgrade, verify the fix is applied by checking the APAR (authorized program analysis report) status for this vulnerability
  5. Test that slowloris-type attack mitigation is functioning properly in a non-production environment before deploying to production
Caveat Review IBM MQ 9.4 LTS release notes for any compatibility changes or migration requirements from your current version

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

Fix this in Mq Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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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-2025-36128 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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