CVE-2024-35138 in Security Verify Access Appliance
Summary
by MITRE • 02/04/2025
IBM Security Verify Access Appliance and Container 10.0.0 through 10.0.8 is vulnerable to cross-site request forgery which could allow an attacker to execute malicious and unauthorized actions transmitted from a user that the website trusts.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/24/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-35138 affects IBM Security Verify Access Appliance and Container versions 10.0.0 through 10.0.8, representing a critical cross-site request forgery flaw that undermines the security posture of identity and access management systems. This vulnerability resides within the authentication and authorization framework of IBM's security solution, which is designed to protect enterprise environments from unauthorized access attempts. The flaw allows attackers to exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its users, enabling them to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent.
Cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities typically occur when web applications fail to properly validate the origin of HTTP requests, particularly those containing sensitive operations such as user account modifications, permission changes, or system configuration updates. In the context of IBM Security Verify Access, this vulnerability manifests when an attacker crafts malicious requests that appear to originate from a legitimate user session, leveraging the trust relationship established between the user's browser and the security appliance. The affected versions share a common architectural flaw in their request validation mechanisms, where the system does not adequately verify the authenticity of incoming requests or properly implement anti-CSRF tokens for critical operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access attempts, as it can potentially lead to complete compromise of the identity management infrastructure. An attacker exploiting this vulnerability could modify user permissions, create new user accounts, alter authentication policies, or even disable security controls within the appliance. The consequences are particularly severe given that IBM Security Verify Access serves as a critical component in enterprise security architectures, often acting as a central hub for managing user authentication and authorization across multiple applications and systems. This vulnerability could enable attackers to escalate privileges, establish persistent access, or facilitate lateral movement within compromised networks, making it a significant threat to organizational security postures.
Organizations utilizing affected IBM Security Verify Access versions should immediately implement mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens for all state-changing operations, implementation of proper referer header validation, and enforcement of strict origin validation mechanisms. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery conditions in web applications, and may also map to ATT&CK technique T1566.002 for social engineering via web applications. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing network segmentation, monitoring for suspicious authentication patterns, and conducting comprehensive security assessments of their access management infrastructure to identify potential exploitation attempts. The remediation strategy should prioritize immediate patching of affected systems, followed by validation of existing security controls and implementation of additional defensive measures to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in other components of the security infrastructure.