Security Resilience

CVE-2023-25681

Ibm Spectrum Virtualize 8.5.0.0

Published
05 March 2024
Modified
04 March 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0056 45th percentile
Risk Priority 42 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-25681 is a medium-severity Use of Single-factor Authentication (CWE-308) vulnerability in Ibm Spectrum Virtualize. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Remote Services (T1021); ranked at the 45th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) and IA-8 (Identification and Authentication (Non-organizational Users)) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A07:2025 Authentication Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

LDAP users on IBM Spectrum Virtualize 8.5 which are configured to require multifactor authentication can still authenticate to the CIM interface using only username and password. This does not affect local users with MFA configured or remote users authenticating via…

more

single sign-on. IBM X-Force ID: 247033.

CWE(s)
CWE-308

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1021 Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may use [Valid Accounts](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078.001 Default Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a default account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
T1110.002 Password Cracking Credential Access
Adversaries may use password cracking to attempt to recover usable credentials, such as plaintext passwords, when credential material such as password hashes are obtained.
attack.mitre.org →
T1110.003 Password Spraying Credential Access
Adversaries may use a single or small list of commonly used passwords against many different accounts to attempt to acquire valid account credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1110.004 Credential Stuffing Credential Access
Adversaries may use credentials obtained from breach dumps of unrelated accounts to gain access to target accounts through credential overlap.
attack.mitre.org →
T1114.002 Remote Email Collection Collection
Adversaries may target an Exchange server, Office 365, or Google Workspace to collect sensitive information.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-27870Same product: Ibm Spectrum Virtualize
CVE-2023-50934Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2024-22355Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2024-41778Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2023-35907Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2023-37398Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2024-22330Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2024-45675Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2023-38369Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2024-40684Same vendor: Ibm

Affected Assets

ibm
spectrum virtualize
8.5.0.0

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)
  • V6.3.4
  • V6.3.6
  • V6.4.2
  • V6.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

IA-2 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) good match

ia-2 requires unique identification and authentication of users, directly stopping single-factor schemes by mandating appropriate (multi-factor) mechanisms.

IA-8 Identification and Authentication (Non-organizational Users) good match

ia-8 requires unique identification and authentication of non-organizational users, directly stopping single-factor schemes by mandating appropriate (multi-factor) mechanisms.

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.AA-03 partial match
blocks

Explicit MFA requirement directly eliminates single-factor authentication while the control also addresses broader authentication scope.

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.5.15 Access control partial match
blocks

A.5.15 only requires defining and documenting an access control policy plus requirements (including references to other controls); it performs no authentication enforcement or multi-factor mandate that would stop single-factor authentication from being exploitable.

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
degrades

Authentication information control directly addresses the need for strong, multi-factor credentials.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
degrades

Access rights provisioning can require MFA, yet the control is broader than authentication strength.

A.8.19 Installation of software on operational systems partial match
removes
A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
degrades

Privileged access rights can be conditioned on MFA, but the control focuses on privilege scope rather than factor count.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
removes

References