# CVE-2018-1447: Weak cryptography in Spectrum Protect

> Weak password hashing in IBM Spectrum Protect allows recovery of weak passwords, requiring users to change passwords after patching.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.1 (`CVSS:3.0/A:N/AC:H/AV:L/C:H/I:N/PR:N/S:U/UI:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Apr 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-m7f9-w9g7-x6f7

## What is CVE-2018-1447?

CVE-2018-1447 is a medium-severity vulnerability in IBM Spectrum Protect, published on 4 Apr 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The GSKit (IBM Spectrum Protect 7.1 and 7.2) and (IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 4.1.3, 4.1.4, and 4.1.6) CMS KDB logic fails to salt the hash function resulting in weaker than expected protection of passwords. A weak password may be recovered. Note: After update the customer should change password to ensure the new password is stored more securely. Products should encourage customers to take this step as a high priority action. IBM X-Force ID: 139972.

Weakness: CWE-916 (Use of Password Hash With Insufficient Computational Effort)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-1447?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Ibm Spectrum Protect for Space Management, Ibm Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments, Ibm Spectrum Protect Snapshot.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-1447?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-1447 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-1447 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1447 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-1447 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-1447 is a medium-severity vulnerability in IBM Spectrum Protect, published on 4 Apr 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1447 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: IBM Spectrum Protect. 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-2018-1447/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1447/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-1447
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-1447
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-1447

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1447/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.