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CVE-2020-4870

7.5 HIGH
Denial of Service

📋 TL;DR

IBM MQ 9.2 CD and LTS are vulnerable to a denial of service attack where specially crafted connection attempts from applications can cause the MQ service to crash. This affects organizations using IBM MQ 9.2 Continuous Delivery or Long Term Support releases for message queuing.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:
  • IBM MQ
Versions: 9.2 CD and 9.2 LTS releases
Operating Systems: All supported platforms
Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes
Notes: Only affects IBM MQ 9.2 Continuous Delivery and Long Term Support releases. Earlier versions and later fix packs are not affected.

📦 What is this software?

Mq by Ibm

View all CVEs affecting Mq →

Mq by Ibm

View all CVEs affecting Mq →

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Complete service outage of IBM MQ, disrupting all message queuing operations and dependent applications until service restart.

🟠

Likely Case

Service disruption requiring manual intervention to restart IBM MQ services, causing temporary business process interruptions.

🟢

If Mitigated

Minimal impact with proper network segmentation and monitoring allowing quick detection and recovery.

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH - If IBM MQ is exposed to untrusted networks, attackers can easily trigger the DoS condition.
🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM - Internal attackers or compromised internal systems could still exploit this vulnerability.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No
Weaponized: UNKNOWN
Unauthenticated Exploit: ⚠️ Yes
Complexity: LOW

The vulnerability requires network access to IBM MQ but no authentication. Attack complexity is low as it involves sending malformed connection requests.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: Apply IBM MQ 9.2.0.2 or later fix packs

Vendor Advisory: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6380742

Restart Required: Yes

Instructions:

1. Download the appropriate fix pack from IBM Fix Central. 2. Stop all IBM MQ services. 3. Apply the fix pack according to IBM documentation. 4. Restart IBM MQ services. 5. Verify successful installation.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Network Access Restriction

all

Restrict network access to IBM MQ to only trusted applications and networks

Use firewall rules to limit access to IBM MQ ports (typically 1414, 1415)

Connection Rate Limiting

all

Implement connection rate limiting at network or application level

Configure network devices or load balancers to limit connection rates to IBM MQ

🧯 If You Can't Patch

  • Implement strict network segmentation to isolate IBM MQ from untrusted networks
  • Deploy intrusion detection/prevention systems to monitor for abnormal connection patterns

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check IBM MQ version using 'dspmqver' command and verify if running 9.2 CD or LTS without fix pack 9.2.0.2 or later

Check Version:

dspmqver

Verify Fix Applied:

Run 'dspmqver' command and confirm version shows 9.2.0.2 or higher fix pack applied

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

  • Unexpected service crashes in IBM MQ error logs
  • Multiple failed connection attempts from single sources
  • AMQERR01.LOG entries showing abnormal termination

Network Indicators:

  • Unusual connection patterns to IBM MQ ports
  • Multiple TCP SYN packets to port 1414 from single IPs
  • Connection attempts with malformed MQ protocol data

SIEM Query:

source="ibm_mq_logs" AND ("abnormal termination" OR "service crash" OR "unexpected shutdown")

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2020-4870
CVSS v3 Score: 7.5 (HIGH)
CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published: December 21, 2020
Last Updated: November 21, 2024

🔗 References

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