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CVE Record

CVE-2018-1607: IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager 5.0 through 5.02 and 6.0 through 6.0.6 is vulnerable to a XML Ex...

IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager 5.0 through 5.02 and 6.0 through 6.0.6 is vulnerable to a XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to expose sensitive information or consume memory resources. IBM X-Force ID: 143797.

HighCVSS 7.1Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2018-1607 affects IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager versions 5.0 through 5.02 and 6.0 through 6.0.6. A low-privileged remote user could abuse XML processing to read sensitive information or consume memory. Treat this as high priority for environments still running affected IBM RELM versions.

Executive priority

Prioritize remediation for any affected RELM instance still in use, especially in engineering environments containing sensitive project, design, or lifecycle data. The main business concern is unauthorized information exposure, with secondary service stability risk from memory exhaustion.

Technical view

The issue is XML External Entity Injection in IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager when processing XML data. CVSS 3.0 is 7.1: network reachable, low attack complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, high confidentiality impact, low availability impact, and no integrity impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely in organizations still operating IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager 5.0, 5.01, 5.02, or 6.0 through 6.0.6. Risk increases where RELM XML-processing functionality is reachable by authenticated network users or broadly accessible internal users.

Exploitation context

The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. The CVSS vector indicates exploitation requires network access and low privileges, but no user interaction. The source bundle does not provide public exploit details.

Researcher notes

Evidence supports XXE in IBM RELM XML handling with IBM X-Force ID 143797. The source bundle lists affected versions and CVSS details but does not include specific fixed versions, exploit telemetry, or detailed mitigation text beyond IBM references.

Mitigation direction

  • Identify all IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager deployments and versions.
  • Consult IBM’s CVE-2018-1607 bulletin and apply the vendor-listed remediation.
  • Limit RELM access to trusted networks and authorized users.
  • Review XML-processing exposure and disable risky functionality only if vendor-supported.
  • Monitor RELM hosts for unusual memory consumption or sensitive file access indicators.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm whether any RELM instance runs 5.0 through 5.02 or 6.0 through 6.0.6.
  • Verify IBM’s CVE-2018-1607 remediation is applied on affected systems.
  • Check whether XML import or processing features are reachable by low-privileged users.
  • Review authentication, network segmentation, and access logs around RELM services.
  • Document any compensating controls if remediation cannot be applied immediately.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
4

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

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CVE-2018-1607 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
7.1 (3.0)
Known Exploited
No
Published

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

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
3Source links

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
7.1CVSS 3.0HighCVSS:3.0/A:L/AC:L/AV:N/C:H/I:N/PR:L/S:U/UI:N/E:U/RC:C/RL:O2.84.2Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.0 score

7.1High
CVSS 3.0 vector shape for CVE-2018-1607Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

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

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
IBMRational Engineering Lifecycle Manager5.0, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.0.6, 5.01, 5.02Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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