CVE-2026-16164 in DataPower Gateway
Summary
by MITRE • 10/08/2026
IBM DataPower Gateway 10.5.0.0 through 10.5.0.22, 10.6.1 through 10.6.6, 10.6.0.0 through 10.6.0.10, and 11.0.0.0 through 11.0.0.2 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service due to a buffer overflow.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/08/2026
The vulnerability identified in IBM DataPower Gateway versions ranging from 10.5.0.0 through 10.5.0.22, 10.6.1 through 10.6.6, and specific releases within the 10.6.0.x and 11.0.0.x series represents a critical security flaw rooted in improper memory management during input processing. This buffer overflow condition arises when the application fails to adequately validate or bound-check user-supplied data before copying it into a fixed-size memory buffer. As a result, an attacker who can interact with the DataPower Gateway service over the network may supply crafted packets containing oversized payloads that exceed the allocated buffer capacity. The immediate technical consequence of this overflow is the corruption of adjacent memory structures, which disrupts the normal execution flow of the application process. In many cases involving denial-of-service vulnerabilities in gateway appliances, the primary outcome is a crash or hang of the service rather than arbitrary code execution, although the potential for exploitation remains high depending on the specific architecture and compiler protections enabled at build time.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses a severe risk to the availability of enterprise integration services hosted behind IBM DataPower Gateway devices. Since these gateways often serve as critical entry points for API traffic, web service requests, or message queue interactions in complex SOA architectures, their unavailability can cause widespread disruption across downstream systems and client applications. A successful exploitation allows a remote attacker to trigger the denial of service without requiring authentication, making it particularly dangerous if exposed directly to the internet or accessible via internal networks with lax segmentation policies. The impact extends beyond simple downtime; prolonged outages can lead to significant financial losses, reputational damage, and failure to meet service level agreements for connected business partners who rely on these integration points for real-time data exchange.
This flaw aligns closely with Common Weakness Enumeration identifier CWE-120, which describes buffer copy without checking size limits, a classic category of memory safety errors prevalent in C and C++ based software systems. Furthermore, the exploitation vector corresponds to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1499, specifically Endpoint Denial of Service via resource exhaustion or service disruption methods that leverage application layer vulnerabilities rather than network-level flooding attacks like DDoS. The remote nature of this attack surface means it falls under initial access vectors where an attacker can achieve impact without prior foothold in the system, highlighting the importance of treating such gateway-facing services with heightened security scrutiny compared to internal-only components.
Mitigation strategies must prioritize immediate patching to the latest fixed version provided by IBM for each affected release line. Organizations should verify their current DataPower Gateway versions against the specified vulnerable ranges and apply vendor-supplied updates as soon as they are available in a controlled maintenance window. In environments where patching is not immediately feasible, network-level controls such as Web Application Firewalls or advanced intrusion prevention systems can be configured to inspect incoming traffic for anomalous payload sizes or malformed HTTP headers that might trigger the overflow condition. Additionally, implementing strict rate limiting and connection throttling policies can help mitigate the impact of repeated exploitation attempts by reducing the likelihood of service saturation through rapid successive requests. Regular vulnerability scanning focused on application layer protocols is also recommended to detect any misconfigurations or unpatched instances before they are exploited in production environments.