# CVE-2026-9002: IBM WebSphere eXtremes Scale is affected by uncontrolled resource consumption when XDF is enabled

> An adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service in IBM WebSphere Extreme Scale by triggering resource exhaustion via deeply nested Protocol Buffers messages when XDF is enabled.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** 30 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 30 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qh26-gm6x-4qpg

## What is CVE-2026-9002?

CVE-2026-9002 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in IBM WebSphere Extreme Scale, published on 30 Jun 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM WebSphere Extreme Scale 8.6.1.0 through 8.6.1.6 could allow an adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service due to improper validation in the XDF decoder. The application processes deeply nested Protocol Buffers messages and attacker-controlled length prefixes without sufficient bounds checking, which may allow an attacker on the same network to trigger a StackOverflowError or OutOfMemoryError, resulting in a crash of the WebSphere Application Server JVM.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-9002?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Websphere Extreme Scale.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-9002?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-9002 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-9002 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-9002 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in IBM WebSphere Extreme Scale

- [CVE-2026-13759](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-13759/): IBM WebSphere eXtreme Scale is affected by Insecure Deserilization (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2026-13772](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-13772/): IBM WebSphere eXtreme Scale's OQL is affected by remote code execution (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2013-5393](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-5393/): Auth bypass in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-4109](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-4109/): Cross-site scripting in WebSphere eXtreme Scale (medium 6.1)
- [CVE-2016-0400](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-0400/): Other in n/a (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-9002 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-9002 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in IBM WebSphere Extreme Scale, published on 30 Jun 2026. 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-2026-9002 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: IBM WebSphere Extreme Scale. 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-2026-9002/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-9002/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-9002
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-9002
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-9002

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-9002/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.