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WebSphere Liberty EUVDEUVD-2026-100495

| CVE-2026-95696 HIGH
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400)
2026-10-13 psirt@us.ibm.com GHSA-5fmc-fgcm-wfm8
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Reach Liberty network endpoint
  2. Exploit
    Send crafted request
  3. Execution
    Trigger uncaught exception
  4. Impact
    Service denial of availability

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Resource consumption limits
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Per the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N), no authentication, no user interaction, and no special privileges are required - a remote attacker needs only network reachability to an affected WebSphere Application Server Liberty instance (versions 20.0.0.12 through 26.0.0.10). The limiting factors are: impact is confined to availability (no data exposure or code execution), and exploitation requires that the vulnerable Liberty service be network-exposed to the attacker. The exact feature, endpoint, or request type that raises the uncaught exception is not described in the available sources, so whether a non-default configuration or specific component must be enabled cannot be confirmed from the provided data.

Impact

Signals are largely consistent and point to a genuine but moderate availability risk. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, base 7.5 HIGH) describes a remotely reachable, low-complexity, unauthenticated condition with high availability impact and no confidentiality or integrity impact - a pure denial-of-service profile consistent with the CWE-400 (uncontrolled resource consumption) classification and the 'uncaught exception' described by IBM. Exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis': there is no CISA KEV listing, no POC reference in the input, and SSVC records Exploitation: none. The EPSS score is low (0.32%, 23rd percentile), indicating no observed exploitation activity or weaponization to date. SSVC does flag Automatable: yes with Technical Impact: partial, which aligns with a scriptable DoS that degrades availability rather than yielding full system compromise - this is why vuln.today assigns a 'this_week' priority rather than an emergency one. In short, this is a legitimately high-CVSS issue by availability metrics but a moderate real-world priority: the lack of exploitation evidence, low EPSS, and DoS-only impact temper urgency, while the unauthenticated network vector and automatable nature justify timely patching rather than deferral. One caveat: the input does not describe the exact trigger (which request, protocol, or feature raises the uncaught exception), so the practical ease of exploitation cannot be fully confirmed from available data.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A remote, unauthenticated attacker sends a specially crafted request over the network to a reachable WebSphere Liberty endpoint, triggering an uncaught exception that disrupts processing and renders the service unavailable to legitimate users. Because the flaw is unauthenticated and low-complexity (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N) and SSVC marks it automatable, the request could be scripted and repeated to sustain the outage. No public exploit code or POC reference is present in the available data, and the exact triggering input is not described in the sources.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv2 – Oct 22, 2026

IBM WebSphere Application Server - Liberty (20.0.0.12 through 26.0.0.10) can be driven into a denial-of-service condition by a remote attacker whose request raises an uncaught exception, degrading availability with no confidentiality or integrity impact. Per the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N), no authentication, privileges or user interaction are required - the only prerequisite is network reachability to an affected Liberty instance, and the exact endpoint or feature that triggers the fault is not described in the available sources. Exploitation has not been confirmed (CISA SSVC: Exploitation none) and no public exploit code has been identified; EPSS is low at 0.32% (23rd percentile), and the CISA SSVC assessment rates automation as possible but technical impact as partial, so prioritization within a weekly patch cycle is appropriate rather than emergency action.

Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
v1 Oct 14, 2026 - 01:49 CVSS 6.5

Denial of service in IBM WebSphere Application Server - Liberty affects versions 20.0.0.12 through 26.0.0.10, where an uncaught exception triggered by a crafted request can disrupt service availability. Per the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N), the issue is remotely reachable with low complexity and requires no authentication or user interaction, so any network-exposed Liberty instance in the affected range is potentially at risk; the independent assessment scores impact as availability-only (A:L, with no confidentiality or integrity impact), meaning partial or temporary disruption rather than a complete, persistent outage. There is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no CISA KEV listing, so this is a moderate-severity, patch-tracking issue rather than a known actively exploited threat.

RemediationAI

No fixed version is listed in the supplied data, so the first step is to consult the IBM advisory at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7292228 and apply the Liberty fix pack or interim fix level IBM publishes for the 20.0.0.12 through 26.0.0.10 range, confirming the installed Liberty runtime build before and after the update; treat any IBM-issued iFix as the complete fix, since no configuration-only workaround is documented in the available sources. Because the assessed vector requires nothing more than network reachability, the practical compensating control is to reduce exposure of affected Liberty instances - restrict inbound access to the HTTP/HTTPS endpoints to known client networks or a reverse proxy, and keep administrative and internal-only endpoints off untrusted networks - accepting that this limits legitimate traffic as well and does not correct the underlying exception-handling defect. Monitor Liberty logs and JVM availability for uncaught-exception traces and unexpected instance restarts to detect attempts, and re-check the vendor advisory for an updated patch level before closing the item.

Affected VersionsENISA

WebSphere Application Server - Liberty 20.0.0.12 ≤26.0.0.10

Affected Packages

euvd websphere_application_server_liberty no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

WebSphere Application Server - Liberty is IBM's lightweight, composable Java EE/Jakarta EE runtime, and the affected CPE (cpe:2.3:a:ibm:websphere_application_server:*:*:*:*:liberty:*:*:*) confirms that only the Liberty edition and only versions 20.0.0.12 through 26.0.0.10 are in scope. IBM classifies the defect as CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), while the description attributes the observable effect to an uncaught exception; the two are consistent with a request-handling path that fails without a catch boundary and leaves the runtime in a degraded state, but the specific component, endpoint or request shape involved is not described in the available sources, so whether a non-default feature must be enabled is unverified. The uncaught-exception class is a code-quality weakness in exception handling rather than a memory-safety flaw, which is why the assessed impact is confined to availability (C:N/I:N/A:H) with scope unchanged - there is no evidence of data disclosure, request smuggling or code execution in the supplied material.

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 7.5 HIGH

Remote unauthenticated DoS with no user interaction (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N); impact limited to availability (A:H, C:N/I:N) with no scope change, consistent with an uncaught-exception resource-consumption flaw.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

4
Analysis Updated
Oct 22, 2026 - 17:43 vuln.today
v2 - CVSS changed
Severity Changed
Oct 22, 2026 - 17:37 NVD
MEDIUM HIGH
CVSS changed
Oct 22, 2026 - 17:37 NVD
6.5 (MEDIUM) 7.5 (HIGH)
CVE Published
Oct 13, 2026 - 21:19 nvd
MEDIUM 6.5

DescriptionNVD

IBM WebSphere Application Server - Liberty 20.0.0.12 through 26.0.0.10 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service due to an uncaught exception.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

IBM WebSphere Liberty, a platform underpinning many of our transaction-processing and customer-facing applications, is affected by a remotely triggerable denial-of-service vulnerability that requires no authentication. Successful exploitation would degrade availability of services that depend on Liberty, directly impacting revenue-generating workloads and customer experience. While no active exploitation has been observed, the low attack complexity and lack of authentication make this a credible risk to our operational resilience.

Business Impact: Medium
Compensating Controls

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations include network segmentation to limit exposure, web application firewall rules to detect and block malformed requests, rate limiting, and enhanced availability monitoring to enable rapid restart of affected instances.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.3%
Top 77% exploitable
Prevalence
High
widely-deployed enterprise Java application server platform
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.3%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact
Medium
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

38
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +38
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

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