CVE-2024-40697 Overview
CVE-2024-40697 affects IBM Common Licensing 9.0. The product does not enforce strong password requirements by default, allowing users to set weak credentials. Attackers can leverage this weakness to compromise user accounts through brute-force and credential-guessing attacks. IBM tracks this issue internally as X-Force ID 297895.
The vulnerability is classified under CWE-521: Weak Password Requirements. Because IBM Common Licensing manages software entitlement data across enterprise environments, account compromise can expose licensing records and configuration details to unauthorized parties.
Critical Impact
Attackers can compromise IBM Common Licensing 9.0 accounts over the network without prior authentication or user interaction, leading to unauthorized access to licensing data.
Affected Products
- IBM Common Licensing 9.0
- CPE: cpe:2.3:a:ibm:common_licensing:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- Component: ibm:common_licensing
Discovery Timeline
- 2024-08-13 - CVE-2024-40697 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2024-40697
Vulnerability Analysis
IBM Common Licensing 9.0 ships without a default password policy that enforces complexity, length, or character-class requirements. Users can register or set passwords that fall well below modern strength baselines. The absence of these controls aligns with the conditions described by CWE-521: Weak Password Requirements.
Attackers exploit this design weakness using offline dictionary attacks, online credential stuffing, or password spraying against the licensing service. Because the attack vector is network-based and requires no privileges or user interaction, automation makes large-scale guessing inexpensive. Successful compromise grants access to licensing data managed by the affected account.
The EPSS model places the probability of observed exploitation activity in the lower range, but absence of public exploit code does not eliminate risk. Credential-guessing attacks rarely require bespoke tooling and can be conducted with commodity utilities.
Root Cause
The root cause is missing policy enforcement at the authentication layer. IBM Common Licensing 9.0 accepts weak passwords during account creation and password change operations. No minimum complexity, length, history, or lockout configuration is applied by default.
Attack Vector
The vulnerability is exploitable remotely over the network. An attacker iterates candidate passwords against authentication endpoints exposed by the licensing service. Once a valid credential is identified, the attacker authenticates as the legitimate user and accesses confidential licensing information. The CVSS impact metrics indicate confidentiality compromise without integrity or availability degradation.
No verified proof-of-concept code is published for this issue. Exploitation relies on standard authentication brute-force techniques rather than memory corruption or injection primitives.
Detection Methods for CVE-2024-40697
Indicators of Compromise
- Repeated failed authentication attempts against IBM Common Licensing endpoints originating from a single source or distributed sources.
- Successful logins immediately following clusters of failed attempts for the same account.
- Authentication events from atypical geographic regions or autonomous system numbers for service accounts.
- Logins occurring outside normal business hours for licensing administrator accounts.
Detection Strategies
- Forward IBM Common Licensing authentication logs to a centralized SIEM and build correlation rules for brute-force and password-spray patterns.
- Audit existing account passwords against a known-weak password dictionary to identify pre-existing exposure.
- Alert on first-time successful authentications from new source addresses for privileged licensing accounts.
Monitoring Recommendations
- Track failed-to-successful login ratios per account and per source address on a rolling window.
- Monitor account lockout events and password reset operations for unusual frequency.
- Review network telemetry for scanning behavior targeting IBM Common Licensing service ports.
How to Mitigate CVE-2024-40697
Immediate Actions Required
- Apply the remediation guidance published in the IBM Support Document #7165250.
- Force a password reset for all IBM Common Licensing 9.0 accounts and require credentials that meet enterprise complexity standards.
- Restrict network exposure of the licensing service to trusted management subnets where feasible.
- Enable account lockout thresholds to slow automated guessing attempts.
Patch Information
IBM has published guidance for CVE-2024-40697 through the X-Force Vulnerability Database #297895 and the IBM Support Document #7165250. Administrators should follow IBM's documented configuration steps to enforce a strong password policy on the IBM Common Licensing 9.0 deployment.
Workarounds
- Configure an external authentication provider or directory service that enforces organizational password policy.
- Place the licensing service behind a reverse proxy or VPN that requires multi-factor authentication.
- Conduct periodic credential audits using offline hash testing against weak password lists.
- Disable or remove dormant accounts that may retain weak default credentials.
# Example: enumerate IBM Common Licensing accounts and flag those
# that have not rotated credentials since the advisory date.
# Run on the licensing host with appropriate administrative rights.
last_rotation_cutoff="2024-08-13"
icl-admin list-users --format json \
| jq -r --arg cutoff "$last_rotation_cutoff" \
'.users[] | select(.password_last_changed < $cutoff) | .username'
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
