# CVE-2020-4766: Denial of service in MQ Internet Pass-Thru

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service in IBM MQ Internet Pass-Thru by sending malformed data requests that exhaust system resources.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.0/C:N/PR:N/AV:N/S:U/A:H/UI:N/I:N/AC:H/RC:C/E:U/RL:O`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 22 Jan 2021
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4mx5-h7cq-whf6

## What is CVE-2020-4766?

CVE-2020-4766 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in IBM MQ Internet Pass-Thru, published on 22 Jan 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM MQ Internet Pass-Thru 2.1 and 9.2 could allow a remote user to cause a denial of service by sending malformed MQ data requests which would consume all available resources. IBM X-Force ID: 188093.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-4766?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Mq Internet Pass-Thru.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-4766?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-4766 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-4766 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-4766 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in IBM MQ Internet Pass-Thru

- [CVE-2022-35719](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-35719/): Information disclosure in MQ Internet Pass-Thru (medium 5.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-4766 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-4766 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in IBM MQ Internet Pass-Thru, published on 22 Jan 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-4766 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: IBM MQ Internet Pass-Thru. 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-2020-4766/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4766/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-4766
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-4766
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-4766

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4766/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.