Security Bulletin: IBM Watson Assistant for IBM Cloud Pak for Data is vulnerable to denial of service and arbitrary code execution due to Apache Log4j (CVE-2021-45105 and CVE-2021-45046)

Summary

IBM Watson Assistant for IBM Cloud Pak for Data uses Apache Log4j to log diagnostic data. Vulnerabilities in Apache Log4j (CVE-2021-45105 and CVE-2021-45046) impacts IBM Watson Assistant for IBM Cloud Pak for Data. The fix includes Apache Log4j v.2.17.0.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID:CVE-2021-45105
**DESCRIPTION:**Apache Log4j is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by the failure to protect from uncontrolled recursion from self-referential lookups. A remote attacker with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data could craft malicious input data that contains a recursive lookup to cause a StackOverflowError that will terminate the process. Note: The vulnerability is also called LOG4J2-3230.
CVSS Base score: 7.5
CVSS Temporal Score: See: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/215647 for the current score.
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:CVE-2021-45046
**DESCRIPTION:**Apache Log4j could result in remote code execution, caused by an incomplete fix of CVE-2021-44228 in certain non-default configurations. When the logging configuration uses a non-default Pattern Layout with a Context Lookup, an attacker with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data can craft malicious input data using a JNDI Lookup pattern to leak sensitive information and remote code execution in some environments and local code execution in all environments.
CVSS Base score: 9
CVSS Temporal Score: See: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/215195 for the current score.
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Affected Products and Versions

Remediation/Fixes

For all affected versions, IBM strongly recommends addressing the vulnerability now by upgrading to the upcoming latest (v4.0.5) release of IBM Watson Assistant for IBM Cloud Pak for Data which maintains backward compatibility with the versions listed above.

Follow instructions for Installing Watson Assistant in Link to Release (v4.0.5 release information)

<https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cloud-paks/cp-data/4.0?topic=assistant-installing-watson&gt;

Workarounds and Mitigations

None