CVE-2025-36084 in Concert
Summary
by MITRE • 09/23/2026
IBM Concert 1.0.0 through 3.0.0 uses weaker than expected cryptographic algorithms that could allow an attacker to decrypt highly sensitive information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/23/2026
The vulnerability identified in IBM Concert versions 1.0.0 through 3.0.0 represents a critical failure in the implementation of cryptographic primitives, specifically categorized under CWE-327 as the use of a broken or risky cryptographic algorithm. This flaw stems from the application's reliance on legacy encryption standards that no longer meet contemporary security requirements for data confidentiality and integrity. In modern cybersecurity frameworks, algorithms such as DES, RC4, or weak variants of AES with insufficient key lengths are considered deprecated due to their susceptibility to brute-force attacks, statistical analysis, and known mathematical weaknesses. By retaining these weaker cryptographic mechanisms, the software fails to provide adequate protection against adversaries possessing significant computational resources or access to advanced cryptanalytic techniques.
From an operational perspective, this weakness allows a malicious actor with network-level access or the ability to intercept communications to potentially decrypt sensitive data transmitted between clients and servers within the IBM Concert ecosystem. The impact is severe, as it directly compromises the confidentiality of highly sensitive information processed by the application. Depending on the specific context in which IBM Concert is deployed, this could expose proprietary business logic, personal identifiable information, financial records, or other regulated data to unauthorized disclosure. This aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique T1538, which involves gathering endpoint security software configurations and potentially intercepting encrypted traffic if the underlying encryption can be bypassed. The ability to decrypt this data undermines trust in the system's security posture and may lead to significant regulatory penalties under frameworks such as GDPR or HIPAA due to the exposure of protected data.
The root cause typically lies in configuration defaults that prioritize backward compatibility over security, allowing older clients or systems with limited cryptographic capabilities to negotiate these weaker algorithms during the handshake process. Without strict enforcement of strong cipher suites and key exchange mechanisms, the application remains vulnerable to downgrade attacks where an attacker forces the connection into using a less secure protocol version. This is particularly dangerous in environments where data must remain confidential across untrusted networks, as the encryption provides only a false sense of security while actually facilitating easier interception and decryption by threat actors.
To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations running IBM Concert versions 1.0.0 through 3.0.0 should prioritize upgrading to a patched version that enforces modern cryptographic standards such as AES-256 with GCM mode or ChaCha20-Poly1305 for symmetric encryption and TLS 1.2 or higher for transport security. If immediate patching is not feasible, administrators must manually configure the application to disable all weak cipher suites and enforce strong key lengths of at least 256 bits. Additionally, implementing strict certificate pinning can prevent man-in-the-middle attacks that attempt to exploit these cryptographic weaknesses by intercepting traffic before decryption occurs. Regular security audits and penetration testing should be conducted to ensure that no legacy protocols remain enabled in production environments, thereby aligning the system with current industry best practices for data protection and compliance requirements.