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CVE-2026-84078 – Unauthenticated Privileged Access via LoadBalancerServlet – IBM Guardium Data Prote

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Summary

CVE-2026-84078 is a critical missing authentication vulnerability (CWE-306) affecting IBM Guardium Data Protection version 12.2. The flaw resides in the product’s LoadBalancerServlet, which fails to enforce authentication on requests, allowing a remote, unauthenticated attacker to invoke privileged servlet operations. IBM and the CVE record rate this issue 9.9 (Critical), reflecting its network-exploitable nature and potential impact on data integrity and system availability.

Technical details

  • Root cause: The LoadBalancerServlet component within IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2 does not require any form of authentication before processing incoming requests for privileged, administrative-level functions.
  • Trigger conditions: An attacker simply needs network access to the exposed Guardium Data Protection management interface/servlet endpoint; no valid credentials, prior access, or user interaction are required.
  • Attack vector: Network (remote), with low attack complexity — the vulnerability can be exploited directly over the network without any special conditions.
  • Impact: Successful exploitation lets an unauthenticated attacker perform privileged operations on the affected system, threatening the integrity and availability of the Guardium deployment (per the CVSS vector: Confidentiality Low, Integrity High, Availability Low, with a Scope change indicating impact beyond the vulnerable component).

Affected software

  • IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2
  • IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2.0

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 9.9 (Critical)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Apply the IBM-provided fix pack — SqlGuard_12.0p233_FixPack — for Guardium Data Protection 12.2, as published in IBM’s security bulletin (support document node 7288040). This bulletin addresses this vulnerability alongside a broader set of Guardium Data Protection issues, including unauthenticated deserialization flaws, unauthenticated SQL injection, and authenticated OS command injection.
  • If patching cannot be performed immediately: IBM’s bulletin does not list a documented workaround. Security teams should restrict network access to Guardium Data Protection management/servlet interfaces (e.g., via firewall rules, VPN, or network segmentation) so that only trusted administrative hosts can reach the affected service, and monitor for anomalous, unauthenticated requests to the LoadBalancerServlet endpoint until the fix pack is applied.
  • Review IBM’s advisory for the full list of the 21 related vulnerabilities disclosed alongside this issue, as several other critical-severity flaws (CVSS 9.8–9.9) affect the same product version and are remediated by the same fix pack.

References

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