CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-20474 — Ibm Guardium Data Encryption security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

IBM Guardium Data Encryption (GDE) 3.0.0.2 and 4.0.0.4 does not perform any authentication for functionality that requires a provable user identity or consumes a significant amount of resources.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2021-07-07
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-306

Affected products

  • ibm / guardium_data_encryption / 3.0.0.2
  • ibm / guardium_data_encryption / 4.0.0.4

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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