Cyber Resilience

CVE-2020-4241

RCE in Ibm Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.0 – 10.1.5

High EPSSRCECommand Injection
Published
31 March 2020
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.66 99.2th percentile
Risk Priority 85 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2020-4241 is a high-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Ibm Spectrum Protect Plus. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.8% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

IBM Spectrum Scale and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.0 through 10.1.5 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the system. By sending a specially crafted request, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary commands…

more

on the system. IBM X-Force ID: 175418.

CWE(s)
CWE-78

Related Threats

Likely ATT&CK TechniquesAI

Techniques this vulnerability likely enables, inferred from its description, weakness type, and attributed-actor tradecraft. Confidence is per-technique.

T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Executionconfidence: HIGH
CWE-78 OS command injection directly enables arbitrary command execution via crafted input.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Accessconfidence: HIGH
Remote authenticated attacker can exploit the vulnerable application to run commands, matching exploitation of a public-facing or network-accessible service.
attack.mitre.org →
inferred from description + CWE · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-13686Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2023-35019Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2025-13688Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2026-5935Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2025-36245Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2020-4428Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2024-28767Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2025-13687Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2026-1345Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2024-49803Same vendor: Ibm

Affected Assets

ibm
spectrum protect plus
10.1.0 — 10.1.5
ibm
spectrum scale
10.1.0 — 10.1.5

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.2.5
  • V1.2.8
  • V15.2.5

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SC-27 Platform-independent Applications
addresses: CWE-78

Platform-independent apps typically execute inside a managed runtime or sandbox that restricts direct OS command execution, reducing the ability to exploit OS command injection.

SI-10 Information Input Validation
addresses: CWE-78

Validates inputs to block special elements that would alter OS command execution.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

PR.PS-06's SDLC practices directly require secure coding and input handling that blocks command-injection defects, yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors and verification gaps unaddressed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
detects

Security testing and code review target insecure use of operating-system command interfaces, catching command-injection flaws introduced during development.

References