CVE-2020-4589· NVD / CVE Program· CNA ibm

IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.0, 8.0, 8.5, and 9.0 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system with a special

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Plan (action score 42/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 8.4% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 94.9% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Add it to your regular patch cycle. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

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Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
No fixed version yet

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Is your version affected? Check it

IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.0, 8.0, 8.5, and 9.0 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system with a specially-crafted sequence of serialized objects from untrusted sources. IBM X-Force ID: 184585.

CriticalCVSS 9.8 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded

BDU:2021-01802

Published: Aug 13, 2020
Updated: Jun 16, 2026
EPSS: 8.5% · 95th percentile
CWE: CWE-502

Report tools

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Action score

Plan

Add it to your regular patch cycle.

CVSS: 39 / 40 · 9.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 3 / 30 · 8.5%

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 9.8
CNA · ibm: 8.1; 1.7 point gap

CVSS:3.0/PR:N/I:H/C:H/A:H/UI:N/AC:H/S:U/AV:N/RC:C/E:U/RL:O

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
ibm	websphere application server	cpe:2.3:a:ibm:websphere_application_server

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

ibm websphere application server7.0.0.0 and later · up to 7.0.0.45 inclusive
ibm websphere application server8.0.0.0 and later · up to 8.0.0.15 inclusive
ibm websphere application server8.5.0.0 and later · up to 8.5.5.17 inclusive
ibm websphere application server9.0.0.0 and later · up to 9.0.5.4 inclusive

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (ibm). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

IBM WebSphere Application Server
- 7.0, 8.0, 8.5, 9.0affected

Same product

ibm: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2019-4279IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 and 9.0 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system with a specially-crafted
63This week
CVE-2020-4450IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 and 9.0 traditional could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system with a specia
49Plan
CVE-2025-36038IBM WebSphere Application Server code execution
43Plan
CVE-2020-4448IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment 7.0, 8.0, 8.5, and 9.0 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the sy
43Plan
CVE-2015-1920IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) 6.1 through 6.1.0.47, 7.0 before 7.0.0.39, 8.0 before 8.0.0.11, and 8.5 before 8.5.5.6 allows remote
42Plan
CVE-2000-0848Buffer overflow in IBM WebSphere web application server (WAS) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a long Host: reques
42Plan

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

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Bug bounty scope

IBMHackerOne · disclosure only (VDP)

The product’s vendor appears in a public program. Matched by name; verify the scope text in the program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: high · data can be read
Integrity: high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: High
Integrity impact: High
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-502 · Deserialization of Untrusted Data

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

Data received over the network is deserialized into the language’s native object format without verifying its source. Code paths inside the object can be triggered during deserialization.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-502 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

python

1payload = sock.recv(65536)2job = pickle.loads(payload)

Fixed

python

1payload = sock.recv(65536)2if not hmac.compare_digest(sign(payload), header_sig):3    raise PermissionError("invalid signature")4job = JobSchema.validate(json.loads(payload))

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

Object InjectionCAPEC-586likelihood: Medium · High

ATT&CK techniques

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Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records