# CVE-2016-6589: Denial of service in IT Management Suite

> Attackers can cause a denial of service in the Symantec IT Management Suite login window, disrupting administrative access.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Jan 2020
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9wx3-2vc8-j97r

## What is CVE-2016-6589?

CVE-2016-6589 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Symantec IT Management Suite, published on 8 Jan 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in the ITMS workflow process manager login window in Symantec IT Management Suite 8.0.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-6589?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Symantec It Management Suite.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-6589?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-6589 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-6589 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-6589 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Symantec IT Management Suite

- [CVE-2016-6588](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6588/): Cross-site scripting in IT Management Suite (medium 5.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-6589 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-6589 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Symantec IT Management Suite, published on 8 Jan 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-6589 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Symantec IT Management Suite. 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-2016-6589/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6589/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-6589
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-6589
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-6589

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6589/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.