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CVE Record

CVE-2021-38875: IBM MQ 8.0, 9.0 LTS, 9.1 LTS, 9.2 LTS, 9.1 CD, and 9.2 CD is vulnerable to a denial of service attack cause...

IBM MQ 8.0, 9.0 LTS, 9.1 LTS, 9.2 LTS, 9.1 CD, and 9.2 CD is vulnerable to a denial of service attack caused by an error processing messages. IBM X-Force ID: 208398.

MediumCVSS 6.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

IBM MQ can be disrupted by a message-processing error, causing denial of service. The issue affects several IBM MQ 8.x and 9.x release lines. The main business risk is interruption to applications that depend on MQ for messaging and transaction flow.

Executive priority

Treat as a moderate availability risk. Prioritize remediation for MQ systems supporting customer-facing services, payments, operations, or critical integrations. Systems with narrow internal access can follow standard patch scheduling, but should still be tracked to closure.

Technical view

CVE-2021-38875 is an IBM MQ denial-of-service vulnerability tied to message processing. The CVSS 3.0 score is 6.5 with network attack vector, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, and high availability impact. No confidentiality or integrity impact is indicated.

Likely exposure

Organizations running IBM MQ 8.0, 9.0 LTS, 9.1 LTS/CD, or 9.2 LTS/CD where MQ endpoints are reachable by authenticated users. Exposure is higher for externally reachable or broadly accessible messaging infrastructure.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. The CVSS vector indicates exploitation requires network reachability and low privileges, but no user interaction. IBM X-Force tracks the issue as ID 208398.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited to CVE metadata, IBM advisory references, and IBM X-Force. The bundle does not provide root-cause detail, affected fix packs, or proof-of-concept status. Avoid assuming unauthenticated impact because the CVSS vector specifies low privileges required.

Mitigation direction

  • Inventory IBM MQ versions across production, disaster recovery, and integration environments.
  • Check IBM’s advisory for fixed levels or interim fixes before changing MQ systems.
  • Apply IBM-supported remediation through normal MQ maintenance procedures.
  • Restrict MQ network access to trusted systems and authenticated users.
  • Monitor MQ availability and queue-manager errors until remediation is complete.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm installed IBM MQ versions against the affected release lines.
  • Verify each MQ instance against IBM’s fixed-level guidance.
  • Review firewall and ACL rules for MQ listener exposure.
  • Check monitoring for MQ crashes, restarts, or abnormal message-processing errors.
  • Document remaining unpatched systems with owner, business impact, and target date.
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-2021-38875 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/I:N/AC:L/UI:N/PR:L/S:U/C:N/A:H/AV: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
6.5CVSS 3.0MediumCVSS:3.0/I:N/AC:L/UI:N/PR:L/S:U/C:N/A:H/AV: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-2021-38875Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.0/I:N/AC:L/UI:N/PR:L/S:U/C:N/A:H/AV: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
IBMMQ8.0.0, 9.0.0, 9.1.0, 9.2.0Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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