IBM Rhapsody DM up to 6.0.5 XML Data xml external entity reference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in IBM Rhapsody DM up to 6.0.5. The affected element is an unknown function of the component XML Data Handler. The manipulation leads to xml external entity reference. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2018-1456. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in IBM Rhapsody DM up to 6.0.5. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component XML Data Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a xml external entity reference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-611. The product processes an XML document that can contain XML entities with URIs that resolve to documents outside of the intended sphere of control, causing the product to embed incorrect documents into its output. Impacted is confidentiality, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

IBM Rhapsody DM 5.0 through 5.0.2 and 6.0 through 6.0.5 is vulnerable to a XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to expose sensitive information or consume memory resources. IBM X-Force ID: 140091.

The bug was discovered 05/31/2018. The weakness was published 06/06/2018 (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2018-1456 since 12/13/2017. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. The successful exploitation needs a simple authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 03/21/2025). It is expected to see the exploit prices for this product increasing in the near future.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 6 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $5k-$25k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 233181 (Oracle Linux 7 : libxml2 (ELSA-2025-2673)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (233181). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• IBM

Name

• Rhapsody DM

Version

• 5.0.0
• 5.0.1
• 5.0.2
• 6.0.0
• 6.0.1
• 6.0.2
• 6.0.3
• 6.0.4
• 6.0.5

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.ibm.com/

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Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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