# CVE-2016-0217: Cross-site scripting in Cognos Business Intelligence

> Remote attackers can inject malicious scripts into IBM Cognos pages to steal user authentication credentials via stored cross-site scripting.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 1 Feb 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-85gj-4ph5-254g

## What is CVE-2016-0217?

CVE-2016-0217 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Ibm Cognos Analytics, published on 1 Feb 2017. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence and IBM Cognos Analytics are vulnerable to stored cross-site scripting, caused by improper validation of user-supplied input. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to inject malicious script into a Web page which would be executed in a victim's Web browser within the security context of the hosting Web site, once the page is viewed. An attacker could use this vulnerability to steal the victim's cookie-based authentication credentials.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-0217?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Cognos Analytics.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-0217?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-0217 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-0217 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-0217 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Ibm Cognos Analytics

- [CVE-2020-4561](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4561/): Missing authorization in Cognos Analytics (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2024-51466](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-51466/): IBM Cognos Analytics expression language injection (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2021-29679](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-29679/): Code injection in Cognos Analytics (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2024-25047](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-25047/): IBM Cognos Analytics log injection (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2018-1721](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1721/): IBM Cognos Analytics 11.0 and 11.1 is vulnerable to a XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. (high 8.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-0217 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-0217 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Ibm Cognos Analytics, published on 1 Feb 2017. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-0217 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ibm Cognos Analytics. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-0217/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-0217/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-0217
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-0217
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-0217

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-0217/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.