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CVE Record

CVE-2018-1997: IBM Business Automation Workflow and Business Process Manager 18.0.0.0, 18.0.0.1, and 18.0.0.2 are vulnerab...

IBM Business Automation Workflow and Business Process Manager 18.0.0.0, 18.0.0.1, and 18.0.0.2 are vulnerable to a denial of service attack. An authenticated attacker might send a specially crafted request that exhausts server-side memory. IBM X-Force ID: 154774.

MediumCVSS 4.3Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2018-1997 is a denial-of-service issue in IBM Business Automation Workflow and Business Process Manager versions 18.0.0.0, 18.0.0.1, and 18.0.0.2. An authenticated attacker could send a crafted request that exhausts server-side memory, potentially disrupting workflow services.

Executive priority

Treat this as a moderate operational resilience issue. It is not described as data theft or remote unauthenticated compromise, but affected workflow platforms may support critical business processes and should be remediated through IBM guidance.

Technical view

The CVSS 3.0 score is 4.3 with network attack vector, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, unchanged scope, and low availability impact only. The available sources describe memory exhaustion from specially crafted authenticated requests but do not provide endpoint-level details.

Likely exposure

Exposure is limited to organizations running the listed IBM Business Automation Workflow or Business Process Manager 18.0.0.x releases, especially where authenticated users can reach the affected service over the network.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited evidence of active exploitation. The attacker must already have authenticated access, reducing broad internet-drive-by risk but leaving insider, compromised-account, and partner-access scenarios relevant.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited to public CVE, IBM advisory, and IBM X-Force references. The vulnerability is availability-only and authenticated. Do not assume affected components beyond the listed IBM products and versions without vendor confirmation.

Mitigation direction

  • Check the IBM advisory for official remediation and apply vendor-supported fixes.
  • Confirm whether any affected 18.0.0.x deployments remain in production.
  • Restrict access to authenticated workflow services to trusted users and networks.
  • Monitor server memory exhaustion, restarts, and unusual authenticated request patterns.
  • Review account access for unnecessary or stale Business Automation Workflow users.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory IBM Business Automation Workflow and Business Process Manager versions.
  • Compare installed versions against 18.0.0.0, 18.0.0.1, and 18.0.0.2.
  • Review IBM guidance for fixed versions or interim mitigations.
  • Check logs for repeated authenticated requests preceding memory pressure or service instability.
  • Confirm monitoring alerts cover server-side memory exhaustion and process restarts.
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.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

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CVE-2018-1997 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Medium
CVSS
4.3 (3.0)
Known Exploited
No
Published

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

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
4.3CVSS 3.0MediumCVSS:3.0/A:L/PR:L/I:N/AC:L/C:N/S:U/UI:N/AV:N/RL:O/E:U/RC:C2.81.4Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.0 score

4.3Medium
CVSS 3.0 vector shape for CVE-2018-1997Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

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

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
IBMBusiness Automation Workflow18.0.0.0, 18.0.0.1, 18.0.0.2Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.