Description

IBM API Connect 10.0.8.0 through 10.0.8.12 and 12.1.0.0 through 12.1.1.2 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to obtain sensitive information due to path traversal.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.7",
  "pubDate": "2026-11-07T05:18:36.943Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-11-07T05:18:36.943Z",
  "executiveSummary": "IBM API Connect versions 10.0.8.0 through 10.0.8.12 and 12.1.0.0 through 12.1.1.2 are susceptible to a path traversal vulnerability.\nThis vulnerability allows a remote, authenticated attacker to manipulate file path references, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive information stored on the server filesystem.\nThe flaw stems from insufficient input validation and sanitization within the application's file handling mechanisms.\nSuccessful exploitation requires that the attacker has authenticated access to the system.\nBy crafting malicious input containing directory traversal sequences, an attacker can escape the intended root directory, potentially reading sensitive configuration files, system logs, or proprietary data.\nThis poses a significant risk to data confidentiality, as it bypasses standard access control restrictions implemented for file system resources.\nThe vulnerability is inherent to the product's architectural handling of file path inputs, necessitating corrective updates to ensure proper path canonicalization and validation.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper processing of user-supplied input used to construct file system paths within IBM API Connect.\nThe application fails to perform adequate validation or canonicalization of input strings, allowing an attacker to utilize directory traversal sequences (e.g., ../) to navigate outside of the authorized application directories.\nThe vulnerability occurs when the application accepts user input that is subsequently passed into a filesystem API without verifying that the resulting absolute path resides within the expected, restricted base directory.\nThe attack flow begins with the authenticated attacker identifying an input parameter or API endpoint that interacts with the server filesystem. By injecting traversal sequences, the attacker forces the application to resolve paths to unauthorized locations.\nFor example, if the application expects a filename in a specific directory, providing a payload like '../../../../etc/passwd' (depending on the target OS and directory depth) could cause the application to return the contents of the target file instead of the intended resource.\nThis vulnerability is restricted to remote, authenticated attackers, meaning unauthorized users cannot exploit this flaw. However, once authenticated, an attacker with sufficient privileges could potentially browse the directory structure and exfiltrate sensitive files, which may contain API keys, system credentials, or internal configuration data.\nThe affected versions include IBM API Connect 10.0.8.0 through 10.0.8.12 and 12.1.0.0 through 12.1.1.2. The vulnerability exists within the logic that manages file retrieval or processing in these specific releases.\nThe post-exploitation impact is primarily the loss of confidentiality. An attacker successfully traversing the filesystem can read arbitrary files, which provides a significant foothold for further system reconnaissance or secondary attacks, such as privilege escalation or lateral movement if sensitive configuration tokens are exposed."
}