IBM CVE-2025-14790

The CVSS 3.1 score of 6.5 reflects moderate-to-high severity with a concerning attack profile: Network-accessible (AV:N), Low complexity (AC:L), and requiring only Low privilege (PR:L), meaning any authenticated user can exploit this without special conditions. The primary impact is confidentiality loss (C:H), with no integrity or availability impact. The network accessibility and low complexity indicate this is straightforward to exploit once an attacker gains initial authentication, which is realistic in enterprise environments where employees or compromised accounts exist. Without publicly disclosed EPSS data or KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerability) status in this analysis, this vulnerability should be considered a real priority for organizations running affected InfoSphere versions, particularly those in regulated industries handling sensitive data. The requirement for authentication (PR:L) prevents widespread remote exploitation, but insider threats and compromised application accounts present credible attack paths. This is not a high-CVSS-but-low-risk issue; credential compromise in a data integration platform is operationally significant and can enable secondary attacks.

A disgruntled employee with standard user credentials to InfoSphere Information Server logs in and navigates to the platform's connection configuration or credential management sections. Due to the insufficient credential protection, they are able to extract plaintext or easily decryptable credentials for downstream database systems and APIs that InfoSphere manages. Using these extracted credentials, the attacker establishes direct access to sensitive databases or third-party systems without triggering application logs, enabling data theft or lateral movement across the organization's infrastructure while maintaining plausible deniability within the InfoSphere audit trail.