CVE-2025-36137
Ibm Sterling Connect\ direct
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-36137 is a high-severity Execution with Unnecessary Privileges (CWE-250) vulnerability in Ibm Sterling Connect\. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).
Operationally, 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-37202
Vulnerability Data
IBM Sterling Connect Direct for Unix 6.2.0.7 through 6.2.0.9 iFix004, 6.4.0.0 through 6.4.0.2 iFix001, and 6.3.0.2 through 6.3.0.5 iFix002 incorrectly assigns permissions for maintenance tasks to Control Center Director (CCD) users that could allow a privileged user to escalate their…
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privileges further due to unnecessary privilege assignment for post update scripts.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly prohibits assignment of unnecessary privileges to CCD users for post-update scripts, eliminating the root cause of the escalation path.
Enforces the correct permission boundaries on maintenance tasks so that CCD users cannot execute or modify privileged scripts beyond their authorized role.
Restricts which accounts are allowed to perform configuration or script changes during maintenance windows, limiting the impact of over-privileged CCD accounts.
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-05 directly enforces least privilege so largely eliminates CWE-250 at design time, yet the weakness can still arise from runtime escalation paths, third-party code, or misapplied role definitions outside this single control.
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.
Requiring explicit justification and time-limited grants discourages the routine allocation of unnecessary privileges that would otherwise allow execution with more rights than required.
Restricting privileged utilities to the fewest trusted users and requiring explicit authorization directly stops developers or operators from embedding or invoking code that runs with unnecessary elevated rights.
Mandating separate non-privileged identities for routine work and restricting privileged accounts to administrative tasks reduces the chance that everyday operations run with unnecessary elevated rights.
The control explicitly calls for minimizing privileged identities and disabling unnecessary accounts, thereby reducing the number of processes that run with unnecessary privileges.
The requirement to restrict privileged access and apply segregation of duties limits the number of processes or accounts that must run with elevated rights, lowering the impact of unnecessary privilege assignments.
Forcing distinct roles for initiating versus executing changes reduces the chance that an individual will run with unnecessary privileges to perform both steps.