# CVE-2021-38900: Information disclosure in Business Automation Workflow

> Privileged users can access highly sensitive information due to improper access controls in IBM Business Automation Workflow.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.9 (`CVSS:3.0/A:N/AV:N/AC:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/PR:H/I:N/RC:C/E:U/RL:O`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 21 Dec 2021
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-88fr-hq55-5pw4

## What is CVE-2021-38900?

CVE-2021-38900 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ibm Business Automation Workflow, published on 21 Dec 2021. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM Business Process Manager 8.5 and 8.6 and IBM Business Automation Workflow 18.0, 19.0, 20.0 and 21.0 could allow a privileged user to obtain highly sensitive information due to improper access controls. IBM X-Force ID: 209607.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-38900?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Ibm Business Automation Workflow, Ibm Business Process Manager, Ibm Workflow Process Service.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-38900?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-38900 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-38900 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-38900 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Ibm Business Automation Workflow

- [CVE-2022-43864](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-43864/): IBM Business Automation Workflow information disclosure (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-13096](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-13096/): XML eXternal Entity injection (XXE) vulnerability affect IBM Business Automation Workflow - (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2019-4424](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-4424/): XML external entity in Business Automation Workflow (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2021-38893](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38893/): Cross-site scripting in Business Process Manager Standard (medium 6.4)
- [CVE-2021-29834](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-29834/): Cross-site scripting in Business Automation Workflow (medium 6.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-38900 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-38900 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ibm Business Automation Workflow, published on 21 Dec 2021. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-38900 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ibm Business Automation Workflow. 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-2021-38900/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38900/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-38900
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-38900
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-38900

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38900/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.