# CVE-2018-1539: Auth bypass in Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager

> Remote attackers can bypass authentication by accessing unintended pages directly, potentially gaining unauthorized access to the system.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.0/A:N/AC:L/AV:N/C:L/I:L/PR:L/S:C/UI:R/E:U/RC:C/RL:O`)
- **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:** 25 Sep 2018
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2cjg-6xm9-4wh6

## What is CVE-2018-1539?

CVE-2018-1539 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Ibm Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager, published on 25 Sep 2018. 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 Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager 5.0 through 5.02 and 6.0 through 6.0.6 could allow remote attackers to bypass authentication via a direct request or forced browsing to a page other than URL intended. IBM X-Force ID: 142561.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-1539?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-1539?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-1539 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-1539 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1539 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Ibm Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager

- [CVE-2018-1846](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1846/): XML external entity in Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2018-1588](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1588/): XML external entity in Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2018-1607](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1607/): XML external entity in Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2014-3037](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-3037/): Cross-site request forgery in n/a (medium 6.0)
- [CVE-2018-1608](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1608/): Weak cryptography in Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager (medium 5.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-1539 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-1539 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Ibm Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager, published on 25 Sep 2018. 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-2018-1539 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ibm Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager. 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-2018-1539/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1539/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-1539
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-1539
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-1539

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1539/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.