CVE-2026-16169 in DataPower Gateway
Summary
by MITRE • 10/08/2026
IBM DataPower Gateway 11.0.0.0 through 11.0.0.2 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service due to uncontrolled resource consumption.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/08/2026
The vulnerability identified in IBM DataPower Gateway versions 11.0.0.0 through 11.0.0.2 represents a significant risk to the availability and stability of enterprise integration infrastructure. This specific flaw is categorized under CWE-400, which describes uncontrolled resource consumption, indicating that the software fails to properly limit or monitor the amount of computational resources such as memory, CPU cycles, or network connections allocated during request processing. In the context of a high-throughput API gateway like DataPower, this deficiency can be exploited by remote attackers who send specially crafted requests designed to trigger excessive internal resource allocation without corresponding cleanup or limits being enforced. The absence of robust input validation and rate limiting mechanisms allows these malformed or maliciously constructed inputs to consume disproportionate amounts of system resources relative to their size or complexity.
From an operational perspective, the impact of this vulnerability is primarily focused on service availability rather than data confidentiality or integrity. When a remote attacker successfully exploits this flaw, they can induce a denial-of-service condition by exhausting critical system resources such as available memory pools or thread counts within the DataPower appliance. This resource exhaustion leads to degraded performance for legitimate users and potentially causes the gateway process to crash or become unresponsive. In an enterprise environment where IBM DataPower serves as a central hub for API management, web services mediation, and secure connectivity between internal systems and external partners, such instability can disrupt critical business workflows, halt transaction processing, and create significant operational downtime that requires manual intervention to resolve.
The attack vector aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique T1498, Network Denial of Service, specifically within the context of resource exhaustion attacks. An adversary would typically interact with the exposed network services of the DataPower Gateway, sending a high volume or specific sequence of requests that trigger the uncontrolled consumption logic. Because this is a remote vulnerability accessible over the network, it does not require prior authentication in many default configurations, making it particularly dangerous if the gateway is directly internet-facing without adequate perimeter security controls such as Web Application Firewalls (WAF) configured to detect and block anomalous traffic patterns associated with resource exhaustion attacks.
To mitigate this risk, organizations running affected versions of IBM DataPower Gateway must prioritize applying the vendor-provided patches or updates that address the underlying code flaws responsible for the uncontrolled resource consumption. It is essential to verify that the specific build version has been updated beyond 11.0.0.2 to include the remediation logic. In addition to patching, administrators should implement network-level mitigations such as strict rate limiting and request throttling policies at both the gateway level and upstream load balancers or firewalls. These controls help absorb traffic spikes and prevent any single source from monopolizing system resources. Furthermore, enabling detailed logging and monitoring for unusual resource usage patterns can facilitate early detection of potential exploitation attempts before they result in a full denial-of-service event.