CVE-2023-43040
Ibm Storage Fusion Hci 2.5.2 – 2.8.0
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:LCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-43040 is a medium-severity Insufficient Granularity of Access Control (CWE-1220) vulnerability in Ibm Storage Fusion Hci. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Cloud Services (T1021.007); ranked in the top 13% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — 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 Spectrum Fusion HCI versions 2.5.2 through 2.7.2 contain a vulnerability that permits unauthorized actions against the RGW component of Ceph because of improper bucket access controls. The flaw is tracked under CWE-1220 and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 6.5 reflecting network attack vector, high attack complexity, and no required privileges or user interaction.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can leverage the issue to alter data (high integrity impact) and to a lesser extent disrupt availability within the affected Ceph RGW environment. Exploitation requires no credentials and can be performed over the network, although the high complexity rating indicates non-trivial conditions must be met.
The associated EPSS score reached a peak of 0.1017 before receding to the current value of 0.0759, indicating limited sustained exploitation interest after disclosure. IBM has published remediation guidance at the referenced support page for affected Spectrum Fusion HCI deployments.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-47461
Vulnerability Data
IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI 2.5.2 through 2.7.2 could allow an attacker to perform unauthorized actions in RGW for Ceph due to improper bucket access. IBM X-Force ID: 266807.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V16.4.2V8.4.2V11.7.1V13.2.4
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Least privilege explicitly demands that only the minimum necessary accesses are granted, eliminating the broad permissions that define this weakness.
AC-24 requires access decisions to be applied precisely and unambiguously to every request, structurally blocking insufficiently granular policies.
AC-3 requires enforcement of authorizations according to policy, directly compelling sufficiently granular rules so broad allowances cannot be introduced.
AC-4 enforces approved information flows with explicit source/destination rules, preventing overly coarse access policies from being deployed.
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.IR-01's segmentation + zero-trust rules directly enforce minimum-necessary access at network boundaries, removing most instances of overly broad policy; CWE-1220 can still exist in application-layer or intra-segment controls that this single outcome does not address.
PR.PS-06's general SDLC practices can surface granularity issues during design/review (partial prevention) but do not specifically target access-control policy breadth, so they remove only part of CWE-1220's risk.
CWE-1220 permits unauthorized access to sensitive assets but neither prevents nor impairs the delivery of adverse-event information to authorized recipients.
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 directly mandates defining and implementing granular access control rules (including need-to-know, role-based restrictions, segregation, dynamic factors, and consistency with classification), which stops most insufficient-granularity cases from being exploitable; the bounded remainder is access-control defects inside individual applications or physical mechanisms that the clause explicitly delegates elsewhere (8.26, 7.2-7.4).
A.5.18 directly governs the provisioning, review, adjustment and revocation of access rights (including granularity via segregation of duties, policy conformance and owner authorization), which stops most insufficient-granularity cases from being exploitable; the bounded remainder is access-control mechanisms whose implemented policy is simply too coarse even after rights are correctly assigned and reviewed.
A.8.2 directly controls allocation, review, temporary use, separation, and heightened authentication of privileged rights per least-privilege policy, which stops most insufficient-granularity cases from being exploitable; the bounded remainder is policy-level granularity flaws inside non-privileged code paths that never reach a privileged-rights decision.
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` (higher-evidence rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
- V-225025 Local accounts with blank passwords must be restricted to prevent access from the network. blocks CWE-1220