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CVE Record

CVE-2020-4685: A low level user of IBM Cognos Controller 10.3.0, 10.3.1, 10.4.0, 10.4.1, and 10.4.2 who has Administration...

A low level user of IBM Cognos Controller 10.3.0, 10.3.1, 10.4.0, 10.4.1, and 10.4.2 who has Administration rights to the server where the application is installed, can escalate their privilege from Low level to Super Admin and gain access to Create/Update/Delete any level of user in Cognos Controller. IBM X-Force ID: 186625.

HighCVSS 8Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2020-4685 lets a low-level IBM Cognos Controller user become Super Admin if they also have administration rights on the application server. That can allow creation, modification, or deletion of any Cognos Controller user account, making it a serious identity and access-control risk.

Executive priority

Treat as high priority if affected Cognos Controller versions remain in use. The issue requires elevated server access, but impact is broad control over financial consolidation user administration if abused.

Technical view

IBM reports privilege escalation in Cognos Controller 10.3.0, 10.3.1, 10.4.0, 10.4.1, and 10.4.2. CVSS 3.0 is 8.0 with network attack vector, high privileges required, no user interaction, changed scope, and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely in organizations still running the listed IBM Cognos Controller versions, especially where users with low Cognos privileges also have administrative rights on the server hosting the application.

Exploitation context

The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited active exploitation. The CVSS vector marks exploit code maturity as unproven. Preconditions are significant, but successful abuse could fully compromise Cognos Controller user administration.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited to the CVE record, IBM advisory reference, and IBM X-Force entry. No CWE is provided. The key validation point is the combination of affected version and server-admin rights held by low-level Cognos users.

Mitigation direction

  • Review IBM's advisory for official fix levels and remediation guidance.
  • Upgrade or patch affected Cognos Controller deployments per IBM guidance.
  • Remove unnecessary server administration rights from low-privilege Cognos users.
  • Audit Cognos Controller Super Admin and user-management changes.
  • Segregate server administration from Cognos application user roles.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory Cognos Controller versions across all environments.
  • Confirm whether any deployment runs 10.3.0 through 10.4.2.
  • Identify low-level Cognos users with application-server administration rights.
  • Review logs for unexpected user creation, deletion, or privilege changes.
  • Verify applied fix status against IBM's advisory.
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-2020-4685 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
8 (3.0)
Known Exploited
No
Published

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

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
8CVSS 3.0HighCVSS:3.0/S:C/I:H/C:H/AC:H/A:H/PR:H/UI:N/AV:N/RL:O/RC:C/E:U1.36Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.0 score

8High
CVSS 3.0 vector shape for CVE-2020-4685Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

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

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
IBMCognos Controller10.3.1, 10.3.0, 10.4.0, 10.4.1, 10.4.2Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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