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CVE Record

CVE-2021-38958: IBM MQ Appliance 9.2 CD and 9.2 LTS is affected by a denial of service attack caused by a concurrency issue.

IBM MQ Appliance 9.2 CD and 9.2 LTS is affected by a denial of service attack caused by a concurrency issue. IBM X-Force ID: 212042

MediumCVSS 5.1Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

IBM MQ Appliance 9.2 CD and 9.2 LTS can be forced into a denial-of-service condition due to a concurrency issue. The known impact is availability only, not data theft or modification. Business urgency is moderate where MQ Appliance supports critical messaging workflows.

Executive priority

Handle through normal vulnerability remediation with elevated priority for business-critical messaging infrastructure. This is not currently supported as actively exploited, but a successful denial of service could disrupt systems dependent on MQ message delivery.

Technical view

CVE-2021-38958 affects IBM MQ Appliance 9.2 versions 9.2.0.0 through listed 9.2.3 releases. CVSS 3.0 score is 5.1, with local attack vector, high attack complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, and high availability impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure is likely limited to organizations running affected IBM MQ Appliance 9.2 CD or 9.2 LTS versions. The CVSS vector indicates local attack requirements, reducing internet-scale risk but still relevant for appliance operators and environments with weak local access controls.

Exploitation context

The provided sources do not report active exploitation, and this CVE is not listed as CISA KEV. CVSS exploit maturity is marked unproven. Treat exploitation evidence as incomplete rather than absent in every environment.

Researcher notes

The source bundle names the concurrency issue and affected versions but does not provide technical root-cause detail, CWE mapping, or exact fixed version text. Avoid assuming remote exploitability; the supplied CVSS vector specifies local access and high attack complexity.

Mitigation direction

  • Identify all IBM MQ Appliance 9.2 CD and LTS deployments.
  • Check IBM advisory for the official fixed release or remediation.
  • Prioritize upgrades for appliances supporting critical message flows.
  • Restrict local access to appliance administrative and operational interfaces.
  • Monitor MQ Appliance availability until remediation is complete.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm appliance versions against the affected version list.
  • Verify whether IBM’s official remediation has been applied.
  • Review availability logs for unexplained restarts or service interruptions.
  • Validate local access controls around appliance management paths.
  • Document affected and remediated appliances for audit tracking.
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-2021-38958 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.1 (3.0)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.0/S:U/UI:N/A:H/I:N/C:N/AV:L/PR:N/AC:H/RC:C/E:U/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
5.1CVSS 3.0MediumCVSS:3.0/S:U/UI:N/A:H/I:N/C:N/AV:L/PR:N/AC:H/RC:C/E:U/RL:O1.43.6Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.0 score

5.1Medium
CVSS 3.0 vector shape for CVE-2021-38958Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.0/S:U/UI:N/A:H/I:N/C:N/AV:L/PR:N/AC:H/RC:C/E:U/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
IBMMQ Appliance9.2.0.0, 9.2.1, 9.2.0.1, 9.2.2, 9.2.0.2, 9.2.0.3, 9.2.3Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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