CVE-2025-12755
📋 TL;DR
IBM MQ Operator and container images have a log injection vulnerability where log messages aren't properly sanitized before being written to log files. This allows unauthorized users to inject malicious data into MQ logs, potentially causing misleading logs, log manipulation, or issues with downstream log processing. Affected users include those running IBM MQ Operator SC2 v3.2.0–3.8.1, LTS v2.0.0–2.0.29, or IBM-supplied MQ Advanced container images across SC2, CD, and LTS 9.3.x–9.4.x releases.
💻 Affected Systems
- IBM MQ Operator
- IBM MQ Advanced container images
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could inject malicious content that corrupts log files, causes log processing systems to fail, or creates misleading forensic evidence that obscures actual attacks.
Likely Case
Log entries become unreliable due to injected content, potentially causing monitoring/alerting systems to generate false positives or miss actual security events.
If Mitigated
With proper log validation and monitoring, impact is limited to log integrity issues without affecting MQ functionality.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires ability to influence log messages, typically through some level of access to the MQ system
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: IBM MQ Operator SC2 v3.8.2+, LTS v2.0.30+, and updated container images
Vendor Advisory: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7260087
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Review IBM advisory for specific patching instructions. 2. Update IBM MQ Operator to SC2 v3.8.2+ or LTS v2.0.30+. 3. Update container images to patched versions. 4. Restart affected MQ services.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement log validation at processing layer
allAdd validation/sanitization in log processing systems to detect and handle malformed log entries
Restrict log file access
linuxApply strict file permissions to MQ log directories to limit who can write to or read log files
chmod 640 /var/mqm/log/*
chown mqm:mqm /var/mqm/log/*
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network segmentation to isolate MQ systems from untrusted networks
- Deploy log monitoring with anomaly detection to identify suspicious log patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check IBM MQ Operator version: kubectl get ibmmq -o json | grep version. Check container image tags for affected versions.Check Version:
For operator: kubectl get ibmmq -o jsonpath='{.items[*].spec.version}'. For containers: docker inspect <container> | grep ImageVerify Fix Applied:
Verify updated to SC2 v3.8.2+, LTS v2.0.30+, or patched container images. Test log injection attempts are properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual characters or patterns in MQ log entries
- Log entries containing unexpected control characters or escape sequences
- Log file corruption or parsing errors
Network Indicators:
- Unusual connections to MQ log management interfaces
SIEM Query:
source="mq.log" AND (message="*\n*" OR message="*\r*" OR message="*<script>*" OR message="*${*}")