CVE-2024-41739: IBM Cognos Dashboards Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2024-41739 Overview

CVE-2024-41739 affects IBM Cognos Dashboards versions 4.0.7 and 5.0.0 running on Cloud Pak for Data. The vulnerability stems from dependency confusion [CWE-427], allowing a remote attacker to perform unauthorized actions. An attacker can exploit this weakness by tricking the application into loading an attacker-controlled dependency instead of the legitimate one. Successful exploitation requires user interaction and can compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system.

Critical Impact
Remote attackers can perform unauthorized actions against IBM Cognos Dashboards through dependency confusion, leading to high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Affected Products

IBM Cognos Dashboards on Cloud Pak for Data 4.0.7
IBM Cognos Dashboards on Cloud Pak for Data 5.0.0
IBM Cloud Pak for Data deployments hosting affected Cognos versions

Discovery Timeline

2025-01-24 - CVE-2024-41739 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-41739

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is classified under [CWE-427] Uncontrolled Search Path Element, manifesting as a dependency confusion flaw. Dependency confusion occurs when a package manager or loader resolves a dependency from an untrusted source instead of the intended internal source. Attackers publish malicious packages with the same name as private internal packages to public registries. The package manager then prefers the higher-version public package, loading attacker-controlled code into the application runtime.

In IBM Cognos Dashboards, this flaw enables a remote attacker to execute unauthorized actions when a user interacts with the affected dashboard component. The attack vector is network-based, requires no privileges, but does require user interaction to trigger the malicious dependency load.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper restriction of the dependency resolution search path within the Cognos Dashboards build or runtime process. The application does not enforce strict scoping or source verification for package resolution. This allows external package registries to take precedence over internal trusted sources during dependency lookup.

Attack Vector

An attacker publishes a malicious package matching the name of an internal Cognos Dashboards dependency to a public registry. When the affected component resolves the dependency, the public registry version is fetched instead of the intended private one. The malicious package executes arbitrary code in the context of the Cognos Dashboards process, enabling unauthorized actions against Cloud Pak for Data.

No public proof-of-concept code is available for this vulnerability. Refer to the IBM Support Advisory for vendor-supplied technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-41739

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected outbound network connections from Cognos Dashboards components to public package registries such as npmjs.com or pypi.org.
Presence of unfamiliar packages in the Cognos Dashboards Node.js or Python dependency tree that do not match the internal package manifest.
Anomalous process execution spawned from the Cognos Dashboards service account during dashboard rendering or initialization.

Detection Strategies

Audit the Cognos Dashboards container images and runtime environments for package versions that diverge from the IBM-shipped manifest.
Monitor build pipelines and CI/CD systems for dependency resolution events that pull from external registries instead of internal mirrors.
Inspect package-lock files and dependency hashes against known-good IBM baselines to identify substitution attempts.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable application-layer logging on Cloud Pak for Data to capture dependency load events and origin URLs.
Continuously monitor egress traffic from Cognos Dashboards pods for connections to untrusted package registries.
Forward Cloud Pak for Data audit logs to a centralized SIEM for correlation with user interaction events on dashboards.

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-41739

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the IBM security update referenced in the IBM Support Advisory for Cognos Dashboards 4.0.7 and 5.0.0.
Inventory all Cloud Pak for Data deployments to identify instances running affected versions of Cognos Dashboards.
Restrict outbound network access from Cognos Dashboards components to only approved internal package registries.

Patch Information

IBM has released a fix referenced in the official support bulletin at IBM Support Page. Administrators must apply the vendor-supplied update to Cognos Dashboards on Cloud Pak for Data to remediate the dependency confusion flaw. Verify the patched version matches IBM's published fix level after deployment.

Workarounds

Configure package managers used by Cognos Dashboards to resolve dependencies exclusively from a trusted internal registry or mirror.
Implement scope-based namespacing for internal packages to prevent name collisions with public registry entries.
Apply network egress filtering at the cluster level to block Cognos Dashboards pods from reaching public package registries until the patch is applied.

bash

# Example: restrict npm to an internal registry only
npm config set registry https://internal-registry.example.com/
npm config set @company:registry https://internal-registry.example.com/