Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate with low-privilege FTM credentials
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ExploitExtract hard-coded keys/IVs from product
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ExecutionDecrypt sensitive data and forge auth tags
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ImpactDisclose financial data and inject forged messages
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A04:2025 - Cryptographic Failures
ASVS 5.0
V11 - Cryptography Approved algorithm selection
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires valid authenticated access to the FTM for RedHat OpenShift instance (PR:L) - it is NOT reachable by fully unauthenticated attackers. The decisive technical prerequisite is the product's use of static, hard-coded cryptographic keys and initialization vectors, which are identical across all installations; an attacker who obtains these (e.g., from the product binaries/images or any single deployment) can decrypt protected sensitive information and forge authentication tags against any affected instance. Limiting factors: the attacker must first obtain low-privilege credentials, the affected scope is specifically the OpenShift-packaged FTM at the enumerated 4.0.6.0 levels (including interim fixes 1-6) through the 4.0.10.0 range, and impact is primarily confidentiality with only partial integrity (forged tags), no availability impact. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-severity, lower-priority issue in practice. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N) reflects a network-reachable flaw with low attack complexity but requiring authentication (PR:L), with high confidentiality impact and only low integrity impact and no availability impact. All non-CVSS signals point to low real-world urgency: EPSS is just 0.22% (13th percentile), it is NOT on the CISA KEV list, no public POC is identified, and CISA's SSVC decision framework rates Exploitation as 'none', Automatable as 'no', and Technical Impact as 'partial'. These signals are consistent with each other - a credentialed weakness in a specialized product that is unlikely to see opportunistic mass exploitation. One nuance to verify: the root cause (hard-coded cryptographic keys and initialization vectors, CWE-327) means the 'secret' is shared across all deployments, so any attacker who extracts the key once could in principle decrypt protected data or forge authentication tags everywhere - yet the CVSS still assigns I:L rather than I:H despite the description explicitly mentioning forging authentication tags, which is worth confirming with IBM. Overall: a genuine cryptographic weakness worth patching on a normal cycle, not an emergency. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker who already holds valid (low-privilege) credentials to the FTM for OpenShift instance leverages the publicly-shared hard-coded keys and IVs to decrypt sensitive transaction data in transit or at rest and to forge valid authentication tags for crafted messages. Because the keys are static and identical across installations, knowledge gained from one deployment or from the product binaries applies to all. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, and low attack complexity means a knowledgeable attacker needs no special timing or race conditions. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv2 – Oct 08, 2026
Hard-coded cryptographic keys and initialization vectors in IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Red Hat OpenShift allow a remote authenticated attacker (CVSS 3.1 PR:L, 7.1 overall) to decrypt protected sensitive information and forge authentication tags, because the same static key material is baked into every deployment rather than generated per installation. Affected builds are the OpenShift-packaged FTM at 4.0.6.0 (including Interim Fixes 1 through 6) and, per ENISA EUVD, the 4.0.7.0 through 4.0.10.0 Interim Fix 06 range; the decisive prerequisite is compromise of a low-privilege account, and impact is primarily confidentiality with only partial integrity (C:H/I:L/A:N) and no availability loss. Exploitation is currently assessed as none - no public exploit code identified at time of analysis, EPSS only 0.22% (13th percentile), CISA SSVC exploitation "none", automatable "no" - which makes this a moderate-severity, lower-priority issue in practice.
Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Red Hat OpenShift embeds hard-coded cryptographic keys and initialization vectors in the shipped software, so a remote authenticated attacker holding a valid low-privilege account can recover those static secrets and use them to decrypt sensitive information and forge authentication tags. The issue is rated CVSS 5.4 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N), with impact confined to partial confidentiality and integrity and no availability effect; the assessed vector confirms the attacker must authenticate (PR:L) and that no user interaction is required. No public exploit code and no confirmed active exploitation were identified at time of analysis, and the affected surface is a niche financial-transaction platform rather than a broadly exposed internet-facing service, making this a real but limited, low-priority finding rather than a high-severity emergency.
RemediationAI
Apply the fix published in IBM's security advisory for this CVE (https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7288641, referenced via NVD at https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-18153) - patch status is "available per vendor advisory", and the provided data does not enumerate a specific fixed build, so confirm the exact patched FTM/Operator level with IBM support before closing the finding and upgrade off the affected 4.0.6.0 (Interim Fix 1-6) through 4.0.10.0 Interim Fix 06 levels. Because the core defect is installation-independent static key material, patching must be paired with key rotation: after upgrading, regenerate the cryptographic keys and initialization vectors for every instance and verify that subsequent deployments no longer share key material across environments, since a single leaked pre-patch key can still decrypt or forge tags against any instance that has not rotated. Until upgrade and rotation are complete, compensating controls are to restrict network reachability of the FTM for Red Hat OpenShift endpoints to trusted management subnets rather than broad exposure (trade-off: breaks legitimate distributed client access, so scope carefully), enforce least privilege and tightly review any accounts holding the low-privilege credentials required by PR:L including service accounts, and monitor FTM application and OpenShift audit logs for anomalous decryption or tag-validation activity (trade-off: added log volume and potential alert fatigue, and detection is best-effort since forged tags can look legitimate). Segregating or rebuilding deployments whose key material may have been exposed is advisable given that the same keys are identical across all installations.
Affected VersionsENISA
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The root cause is tracked as CWE-327 (use of a broken or risky cryptographic algorithm) and manifests as cryptography built on static, installation-independent key material: because the cryptographic keys and initialization vectors are hard-coded into the FTM for Red Hat OpenShift product (and therefore replicated identically in the container images deployed across customer environments), anyone who extracts that key material from the binaries, images, or a single captured deployment gains the same cryptographic capability against every affected instance. That breaks the confidentiality guarantee on data protected by these keys and undermines the integrity guarantee of authentication tags, since a valid tag can be recomputed without ever touching the target system's secrets. The CVSS vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N confirms the attack is network-reachable with low complexity but requires valid low-privilege credentials (PR:L), not full unauthenticated exposure; scope is unchanged and there is no availability impact. FTM for Red Hat OpenShift is the OpenShift/Operator delivery of IBM's financial transaction processing platform, and the CPE data enumerates builds at cpe:2.3:a:ibm:financial_transaction_manager:4.0.6.0 across interim fix levels 1 through 6, with EUVD additionally listing 4.0.7.0, 4.0.8.0, 4.0.9.0 and 4.0.10.0 Interim Fix 06 (Operator 4.4.6+20260807.081800) as in scope.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
Network-reachable but needs low-privilege authentication (PR:L); hard-coded keys make exploitation reliable (AC:L); high confidentiality loss, limited integrity via forged tags (I:L), no availability impact.
Primary rating from NVD.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionNVD
IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for RedHat OpenShift could allow a remote authenticated attacker to obtain sensitive information and forge authentication tags due to the use of hard-coded cryptographic keys and initialization vectors.
Executive ViewAI
IBM Financial Transaction Manager for Red Hat OpenShift (builds 4.0.6.0 with Interim Fixes 1-6 and 4.0.7.0 through 4.0.10.0 IF06) ships with identical hard-coded cryptographic keys and initialization vectors across every deployment, so a single failure of credential hygiene can undermine data protection organization-wide. An authenticated attacker holding only a low-privilege account could decrypt protected sensitive financial data and forge authentication tags, exposing regulated transaction and payment information across all affected installations rather than just one. Leadership should care because the flaw is architectural and systemic: no vendor fix is currently available, and remediation requires compensating controls plus vendor engagement on key material that cannot be rotated by configuration alone.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: strictly limit and audit all accounts with access to affected FTM deployments and enforce least privilege with multi-factor authentication, since the vulnerability is authenticated and requires a compromised low-privilege account; segment affected OpenShift clusters from broader networks and restrict management interfaces; monitor and alert on anomalous decryption or authentication-tag activity against protected financial data; pursue vendor guidance on per-installation key/IV regeneration or unique key provisioning; and evaluate migration to an unaffected FTM release.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
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Remote code execution via ESQL command injection affects IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Red Hat OpenShift,
Sensitive information disclosure in IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Red Hat OpenShift stems from the product
Cleartext transmission of sensitive information in IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Red Hat OpenShift exposes
Message forgery in IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Red Hat OpenShift lets remote, unauthenticated attackers
In the Message Entry and Repair (MER) facility of IBM Financial Transaction Manager for SWIFT Services 3.2.4 the sending
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the OAC component in IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) 2.0 befo
IBM Financial Transaction Manager for ACH Services for Multi-Platform 3.0.2 could allow an authenticated user to obtain
Improper authorization controls in IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Red Hat OpenShift let an authenticated, l
EUVD-2026-84945
GHSA-jq8v-7gp9-5mgc
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB