# CVE-2023-43018: IBM CICS TX privilege escalation

> IBM CICS TX Standard and Advanced perform operations at excessive privilege levels, allowing attackers to escalate privileges or amplify other weaknesses.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 5 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jp5h-5fjw-cp86

## What is CVE-2023-43018?

CVE-2023-43018 is a medium-severity vulnerability in IBM CICS TX Advanced, published on 2 Nov 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM CICS TX Standard 11.1 and Advanced 10.1, 11.1 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:  266163.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management), CWE-250 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-43018?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Cics Tx.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-43018?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-43018 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-43018 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-43018 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in IBM CICS TX Advanced

- [CVE-2022-31767](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-31767/): Command injection in CICS TX Advanced (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-1329](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-1329/): IBM CICS TX code execution (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2025-1330](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-1330/): IBM CICS TX code execution (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2025-1331](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-1331/): IBM CICS TX code execution (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2023-33850](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-33850/): IBM GSKit-Crypto information disclosure (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-43018 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-43018 is a medium-severity vulnerability in IBM CICS TX Advanced, published on 2 Nov 2023. 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-2023-43018 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: IBM CICS TX Advanced. 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-2023-43018/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-43018/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-43018
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-43018
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-43018

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-43018/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.