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CVE-2026-18658 – Unauthenticated SQL Injection Leading to RCE – IBM Operational Decision Manager 8.1

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Summary

CVE-2026-18658 is a critical, unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability in IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM). An attacker can inject arbitrary SQL statements over the network without credentials or user interaction, and leverage the underlying database functionality to write a web shell into the application’s web root — resulting in full remote code execution. IBM rates this CVE 9.8 (Critical).

Technical details

  • Root cause: Improper neutralization of special elements used in SQL commands (CWE-89) in an IBM ODM component that processes attacker-supplied input in database queries.
  • Trigger conditions: No authentication or user interaction is required; the flaw is reachable over the network by any party able to reach the exposed ODM interface.
  • Attack vector: Network (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N).
  • Impact: Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary SQL statements and abuse of database functionality to write a web shell to the application’s web root, giving the attacker remote code execution with high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Affected software

  • IBM Operational Decision Manager 9.6.0.0
  • IBM Operational Decision Manager 9.5.0.0 and 9.5.0.1
  • IBM Operational Decision Manager 9.0.0.1
  • IBM Operational Decision Manager 8.12.0.1
  • IBM Operational Decision Manager 8.11.1.0
  • IBM Operational Decision Manager 8.11.0.1

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 9.8 (Critical)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Apply the IBM-provided interim fix for your installed release — Interim Fix 004 for 9.6.0.0, and corresponding interim fixes for 9.5.0.1, 9.5.0.0, 9.0.0.1, 8.12.0.1, 8.11.1.0, and Interim Fix 060 for 8.11.0.1, as published in IBM’s security bulletin.
  • If patching cannot be applied immediately: Restrict network access to the ODM management/decision server interfaces to trusted internal hosts only, and monitor web-root directories for unexpected file writes as an indicator of exploitation attempts. IBM has not published a workaround in lieu of the interim fixes, so patching remains the primary remediation path.

References

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