Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-35907

Ibm Aspera Faspex 5.0.0 – 5.0.10

Published
29 January 2025
Modified
05 March 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0032 25th percentile
Risk Priority 45 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-35907 is a medium-severity Weak Password Requirements (CWE-521) vulnerability in Ibm Aspera Faspex. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Brute Force (T1110); ranked at the 25th 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-5 (Authenticator Management) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

IBM Aspera Faspex versions 5.0.0 through 5.0.10 are affected by CVE-2023-35907, a vulnerability stemming from the lack of a default requirement for strong passwords (CWE-521). This configuration weakness allows users to set weak passwords, rated with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.9 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N), indicating medium severity primarily due to high confidentiality impact.

Remote attackers with no privileges can exploit this over the network without user interaction, though it requires high attack complexity, likely involving brute-force attempts or password guessing against weak credentials. Successful exploitation enables compromise of user accounts, granting high-level access to confidential data within the Faspex environment.

IBM's security advisory at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181814 provides details on mitigation, recommending enforcement of strong password policies to address the default configuration issue.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A07:2025 Authentication Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

IBM Aspera Faspex 5.0.0 through 5.0.10 does not require that users should have strong passwords by default, which makes it easier for attackers to compromise user accounts.

CWE(s)
CWE-521

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1110 Brute Force Credential Access
Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained.
attack.mitre.org →
T1110.001 Password Guessing Credential Access
Adversaries with no prior knowledge of legitimate credentials within the system or environment may guess passwords to attempt access to accounts.
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 →
T1133 External Remote Services Persistence
Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1558.003 Kerberoasting Credential Access
Adversaries may abuse a valid Kerberos ticket-granting ticket (TGT) or sniff network traffic to obtain a ticket-granting service (TGS) ticket that may be vulnerable to [Brute Force](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-37398Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2023-37400Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2023-27279Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2023-37413Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2024-45098Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2025-36039Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2025-36230Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2023-49883Same vendor: Ibm
CVE-2025-36040Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex
CVE-2023-37412Same product: Ibm Aspera Faspex

Affected Assets

ibm
aspera faspex
5.0.0 — 5.0.10

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V6.2.4
  • V6.2.9
  • V6.2.12
  • V6.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

IA-5 Authenticator Management good match

IA-5 directly requires organizations to enforce strength, complexity, and change rules for passwords and other authenticators at issuance and reset.

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 full match
prevents

Explicitly requires enforcing minimum password strength as part of authentication.

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.5.17 Authentication information mostly match
prevents

Enforcing minimum length, complexity, non-dictionary, and non-reuse rules directly counters weak password policies that allow attackers to guess or brute-force credentials.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

RHEL 7 (2 rules)
  • V-204424 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-521
  • V-204425 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using an empty password. prevents CWE-521

References