# CVE-2023-35894: IBM Control Center HOST header injection

> Attackers can inject malicious HOST headers to execute cross-site scripting, poison caches, or hijack sessions in IBM Control Center.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 Mar 2025
- **Updated:** 17 Aug 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-j79q-5fqv-hj78

## What is CVE-2023-35894?

CVE-2023-35894 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in IBM Control Center, published on 7 Mar 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM Control Center 6.2.1 through 6.3.1 is vulnerable to HTTP header injection, caused by improper validation of input by the HOST headers. This could allow an attacker to conduct various attacks against the vulnerable system, including cross-site scripting, cache poisoning or session hijacking.

Weakness: CWE-116 (Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output), CWE-644 (Improper Neutralization of HTTP Headers for Scripting Syntax)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-35894?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Sterling Control Center.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-35894?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-35894 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-35894 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-35894 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in IBM Control Center

- [CVE-2013-2968](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2968/): Denial of service in n/a (medium 6.3)
- [CVE-2023-42007](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-42007/): IBM Sterling Control Center cross-site scripting (medium 5.4)
- [CVE-2023-35020](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35020/): IBM Sterling Control Center directory traversal (medium 5.4)
- [CVE-2023-43035](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-43035/): IBM Sterling Control Center information disclosure (medium 4.0)
- [CVE-2014-0925](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0925/): Open redirect in n/a (low 3.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-35894 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-35894 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in IBM Control Center, published on 7 Mar 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-35894 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: IBM Control Center. 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-2023-35894/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35894/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-35894
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-35894
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-35894

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35894/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.