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CVE Record

CVE-2021-20464: IBM Cognos Analytics PowerPlay (IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1.7, 11.2.0, and 11.1.7) could be vulnerable to an...

IBM Cognos Analytics PowerPlay (IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1.7, 11.2.0, and 11.1.7) could be vulnerable to an XML Bomb attack by a malicious authenticated user. IBM X-Force ID: 196813.

MediumCVSS 6.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This flaw could let a logged-in user make IBM Cognos Analytics PowerPlay consume excessive resources through a malicious XML input. The main business impact is service disruption, not data theft. It matters most where Cognos supports reporting, finance, operations, or customer-facing analytics workflows.

Executive priority

Treat as a moderate availability risk. Prioritize remediation where Cognos downtime would interrupt executive reporting, finance close, operational dashboards, or customer commitments. It is less urgent than unauthenticated remote code execution, but should not remain unresolved.

Technical view

CVE-2021-20464 is an XML Bomb denial-of-service issue in IBM Cognos Analytics PowerPlay. The supplied CVSS 3.0 vector is network-accessible, low complexity, low privileges, no user interaction, with high availability impact and no confidentiality or integrity impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure is limited to organizations running affected IBM Cognos Analytics PowerPlay versions. The bundle lists 11.1.7, 11.2.0, and 11.2.1, with some duplicated version wording; confirm against IBM’s advisory.

Exploitation context

The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited evidence of active exploitation. Exploitation requires an authenticated user, which lowers opportunistic internet risk but still matters for insider threats, compromised accounts, or broad user access.

Researcher notes

Key constraints are authenticated access and availability-only impact. The CVSS vector indicates AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. Source evidence does not provide exploit details, public exploitation claims, or exact fixed versions in the bundle.

Mitigation direction

  • Review IBM advisory for the official fix or mitigation.
  • Inventory Cognos Analytics PowerPlay deployments and versions.
  • Prioritize systems supporting critical reporting or operations.
  • Restrict PowerPlay access to trusted authenticated users.
  • Monitor Cognos availability and unusual resource exhaustion events.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm whether PowerPlay is enabled on Cognos instances.
  • Compare installed versions with IBM’s affected version guidance.
  • Verify vendor fix status in change records.
  • Review authentication logs for suspicious PowerPlay activity.
  • Check monitoring for unexplained CPU, memory, or service failures.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
5

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-2021-20464 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.0)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.0/C:N/AC:L/S:U/A:H/UI:N/AV:N/PR:L/I: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
4Source 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
6.5CVSS 3.0MediumCVSS:3.0/C:N/AC:L/S:U/A:H/UI:N/AV:N/PR:L/I:N/E:U/RC:C/RL:O2.83.6Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.0 score

6.5Medium
CVSS 3.0 vector shape for CVE-2021-20464Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.0/C:N/AC:L/S:U/A:H/UI:N/AV:N/PR:L/I: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
IBMCognos Analytics11.2.0, 11.1.7, 11.2.1Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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