# CVE-2020-4184: Privilege escalation in Security Guardium

> IBM Security Guardium performs operations with excessive privileges, allowing attackers to escalate privileges or amplify other weaknesses.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.8 (`CVSS:3.0/C:L/A:L/PR:N/I:L/UI:N/AC:H/S:C/AV:A/E:U/RC:C/RL:O`)
- **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:** 15 Mar 2021
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2rwc-w9h2-83r7

## What is CVE-2020-4184?

CVE-2020-4184 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ibm Security Guardium, published on 15 Mar 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM Security Guardium 11.2 performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses. IBM X-Force ID: 174802..

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-4184?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Security Guardium.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-4184?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-4184 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-4184 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-4184 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Ibm Security Guardium

- [CVE-2023-35893](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35893/): IBM Security Guardium command execution (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2017-1253](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1253/): Command injection in Security Guardium (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2017-1269](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1269/): SQL injection in Security Guardium (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-47709](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-47709/): IBM Security Guardium command injection (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2023-30435](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-30435/): IBM Security Guardium cross-site scripting (high 8.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-4184 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-4184 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ibm Security Guardium, published on 15 Mar 2021. 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-2020-4184 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ibm Security Guardium. 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-2020-4184/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4184/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-4184
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-4184
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-4184

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4184/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.