Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain local low-privilege access to appliance
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DeliveryStage malicious patch bundle
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ExploitWin TOCTOU race in signature check
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ExecutionInstaller executes attacker code as root
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ImpactFull appliance compromise
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Concurrency control, locking
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires local access to an IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2 appliance with at least low-level privileges (PR:L), plus the ability to invoke or influence the patch installer workflow. The specific prerequisite is triggering the race condition (CWE-362 TOCTOU) in the patch installer's signature-verification step so an unsigned/attacker-modified patch is accepted; this means the attacker must stage a malicious patch artifact and win a timing window during installation. Limiting factors: no network vector (AV:L - cannot be exploited remotely), prior authenticated/local foothold needed, and reliance on reliably winning a race, which reduces exploit reliability and realistic risk below what the 7.8 score alone suggests. |
| Impact | This is a credible but not emergency-tier priority. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) reflects high technical impact - full confidentiality, integrity and availability loss via root-level code execution - but the attack vector is strictly local (AV:L) and requires at least low-level privileges (PR:L), which sharply constrains the attacker population to users who already have a foothold on the Guardium appliance. There is no EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC provided in the input, so there is no signal of active or probable near-term exploitation: exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' Note a conflict worth flagging: the CWE is CWE-362 (race condition) and the 'Race Condition' tag confirms this is a TOCTOU-style signature-verification bypass, yet the input vector lists AC:L; genuine race conditions usually warrant AC:H because the attacker must win a timing window, so the real-world difficulty may be higher than the input vector implies - verify with the vendor. Net: a privilege-escalation / trusted-code-integrity flaw that matters for hardening and patch hygiene on Guardium deployments, but it is not a remotely-wormable internet-facing threat. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A local user or compromised low-privilege service account on an IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2 appliance crafts a malicious patch bundle and exploits the race condition in the patch installer to bypass signature verification between the check and the install step. By winning the timing window, the attacker gets the installer to execute attacker-controlled code as root, achieving full appliance compromise. No public POC is available at time of analysis, and success depends on reliably winning the race. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 08, 2026
Local privilege escalation to root in the IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2 patch installer, where a signature-verification bypass lets an attacker substitute a tampered or unsigned patch artifact that the installer then executes with root privileges. Exploitation requires local access to the appliance with at least low-level privileges (PR:L) and the ability to stage a malicious patch and win a timing window during installation; the assessed vector is AV:L/AC:H with a resulting base score of roughly 7.0, slightly below the vendor-published 7.8. No public exploit code and no confirmed active exploitation were identified at time of analysis, and the vendor has published a patch; this is a credible but not emergency-tier priority given the local-only attack path, prerequisite foothold, and race-condition reliability constraints.
RemediationAI
Apply the vendor fix referenced in IBM's advisory (https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7288035), which the input classifies as a patch available from the vendor; the exact patched build number is not stated in the provided data, so confirm the target fix level against that advisory before upgrading the appliance. If the installer cannot be updated immediately, reduce exposure by restricting local shell and file-system access on Guardium 12.2 appliances to the smallest possible set of trusted administrators (revoking low-privilege interactive accounts and shared credentials) so no unprivileged user can stage artifacts or touch installer temp paths, with the trade-off of reduced operational flexibility for support and automation accounts. Where the workflow allows it, stage patches on read-only or root-owned media, verify the patch artifact's hash against a value obtained out-of-band from IBM rather than trusting the filesystem copy, and perform installations inside a monitored maintenance window; file-integrity monitoring on the installer directory and its temporary staging paths can detect a swap attempt after the fact but does not prevent it and may generate false positives during legitimate patching. Note that none of these compensating controls address the root cause - the TOCTOU window in signature verification - so the vendor patch remains the only complete remediation.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
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
The flaw is a time-of-check-to-time-of-use race condition (CWE-362) inside the IBM Guardium Data Protection patch installer. Signature verification is performed against a patch artifact, but the verified file is not held under an exclusive handle or immutable state between validation and use, so a local attacker who can influence the installer's working/temp directory or the patch staging path can swap the legitimately signed artifact for a malicious one in that window. Because the installer runs as a privileged process on the Guardium appliance, a successful swap results in execution of arbitrary code as root (C:H/I:H/A:H), fully compromising the appliance that hosts the collected audit and security data. The CPE entry cpe:2.3:a:ibm:guardium_data_protection:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* is version-agnostic, but the vendor description scopes the issue to release 12.2. The attack surface is local only (AV:L) - the installer is not reachable over the network - so the practical entry condition is an existing authenticated or unprivileged foothold on the appliance, and the assessed vector raises attack complexity to High (AC:H) to reflect the difficulty of reliably winning the check/use race, unlike the vendor vector which assumes AC:L.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Local vector and existing low-priv foothold (AV:L/PR:L); AC:H because CWE-362 requires winning a TOCTOU timing window; root code execution yields full C/I/A impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (ibm).
CVSS VectorVendor: ibm
DescriptionCVE.org
IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2 is vulnerable to a signature verification bypass in the patch installer. An attacker with local access could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.
Executive ViewAI
IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2 is exposed to a local privilege escalation that could allow a low-privileged local user to gain root on the appliance, potentially compromising sensitive data and platform integrity. The attack requires local access and a timing window during patch installation, and no public exploit identified at time of analysis, so near-term risk is concentrated in environments where local access is not tightly controlled. Leadership should prioritize patching because root compromise of a data protection appliance could affect data confidentiality and compliance obligations.
Apply vendor patch.
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
Race conditions occur when multiple concurrent requests exploit the brief time gap between checking a condition and acting upon it (TOCTOU - Time of Check, Time of Use).
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
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EUVD-2026-95240
GHSA-874x-xwj3-m65h
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB