CriticalCVE-2015-7450

    IBM WebSphere Application Server and Server Hypervisor Edition: Code Injection (CVE-2015-7450)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    Serialized-object interfaces in certain IBM analytics, business solutions, cognitive, IT infrastructure, and mobile and social products allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a crafted serialized Java object, related to the InvokerTransformer class in the Apache Commons Collections library.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • IBM Sterling B2B Integrator eq 5.2..5.2
    • Sterling Integrator eq 5.1..5.1
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 2.1..2.1
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 2.1.1..2.1.1
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 2.1.1.2..2.1.1.2
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 3.1..3.1
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 3.1.0.1..3.1.0.1
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 3.1.0.2..3.1.0.2
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 3.1.2..3.1.2
    • IBM Tivoli Common Reporting eq 3.1.2.1..3.1.2.1
    • IBM Watson Content Analytics lte 3.0..3.0.0.6
    • IBM Watson Content Analytics lte 3.5..3.5.0.3
    • IBM Watson Explorer Analytical Components lte 10.0..10.0.0.2
    • IBM Watson Explorer Analytical Components eq 11.0..11.0
    • IBM Watson Explorer Annotation Administration Console lte 10.0..10.0.0.2
    • IBM Watson Explorer Annotation Administration Console eq 11.0..11.0
    • IBM WebSphere Application Server eq 7.0.0.0..7.0.0.0
    • IBM WebSphere Application Server eq 8.0.0.0..8.0.0.0
    • IBM WebSphere Application Server eq 8.5..8.5
    • IBM WebSphere Application Server eq 8.5.0.0..8.5.0.0
    • IBM WebSphere Application Server eq 8.5.5.5..8.5.5.5

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    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    97.8 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.90

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    228.84 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    97.8 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.90
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 7 February 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-502

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This flaw is network-reachable without authentication or user interaction and gives direct code execution as the application server account. Weaponised gadget chains (ysoserial) have been public for years, and the CVE sits among those most likely to be exploited. Typical targets are B2B integration hubs, reporting servers and middleware in finance, logistics and manufacturing, which often run unpatched for years. Treat any instance with SOAP or IIOP reachable from the internet or partner networks as a top-priority, fix-within-24-hours item. Internal, segmented systems remain high priority but come second. CISA does not flag known ransomware use, but that does not reduce the risk of initial access.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory: Find every IBM WebSphere Application Server instance and every product built on it. Prioritise Sterling B2B Integrator 5.2, Sterling Integrator 5.1 and Tivoli Common Reporting 2.1, 2.1.1, 2.1.1.2, 3.1, 3.1.0.1 and 3.1.0.2. Many of these releases are at or past end of support, so migration rather than patching may be the only real fix.
      • Apply the vendor patch: The patch is available from the vendor. Look up the exact interim fix or fixpack per product in the IBM Security Bulletin for CVE-2015-7450. The remediation replaces or hardens the vulnerable Apache Commons Collections library.
      • Block network access to serialisation endpoints now: Close the WAS SOAP connector (default TCP 8880) and the ORB/RMI-IIOP bootstrap (default TCP 2809) to untrusted networks. Do the same for the admin console and management ports. Confirm the actual ports in serverindex.xml.
      • Hunt for compromise: Treat internet-facing instances as compromised until proven otherwise. Review child processes of the JVM, new files under installedApps/temp, and any unknown webshells.
      • Rotate credentials: If compromise is suspected, rotate every credential stored on the host. This covers WAS admin accounts, JAAS/J2C aliases, datasource passwords, Sterling trading-partner credentials, and keys and certificates in the keystores.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: Allow management and serialisation ports (8880, 2809, admin console) only from a dedicated admin VLAN or jump host. Place Sterling B2B gateways in a DMZ that exposes only the protocol listeners actually needed (e.g. AS2, SFTP).
      • IPS/WAF signature: Alert on or drop inbound Java serialised streams to unexpected endpoints. Match the magic bytes |ac ed 00 05| in TCP payloads or rO0AB in HTTP bodies and headers, combined with org.apache.commons.collections.functors.InvokerTransformer. Example Suricata rule: alert tcp any any -> $WAS_SERVERS [8880,2809] (content:"|ac ed 00 05|"; content:"InvokerTransformer"; ...).
      • Library hardening: Search for bundled copies of commons-collections*.jar, including in WEB-INF/lib of custom applications, and replace them with hardened releases. If replacement is not possible, strip the InvokerTransformer class from the JAR once you have checked the impact on the application.
      • Endpoint hardening: Run WAS under a non-privileged service account. Use AppLocker/WDAC on Windows or SELinux/AppArmor on Linux to stop the JVM from spawning shells (cmd.exe, powershell.exe, /bin/sh, /bin/bash).
      • Egress filtering: Restrict outbound traffic from application servers to an explicit allowlist. This kills reverse shells and blocks tool staging.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Process ancestry (EDR, Sysmon EID 1, Windows EID 4688): Alert when java.exe/javaw.exe spawns cmd.exe, powershell.exe, certutil.exe or bitsadmin.exe. KQL: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("java.exe","javaw.exe") and FileName in~ ("cmd.exe","powershell.exe","certutil.exe").
      • Linux auditd: Look for execve events whose ppid is the WAS JVM and whose exe is /bin/sh, /bin/bash, /usr/bin/curl or /usr/bin/wget. Sigma shape: logsource: linux/auditd with ParentImage|endswith: '/java' and Image|endswith: ['/sh','/bash','/curl','/wget'].
      • Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata): Flag the Java serialisation header ac ed 00 05 in sessions to 8880/2809 from external or unexpected source IPs. Also watch for new outbound connections from a WAS host shortly after inbound SOAP or IIOP traffic.
      • Application logs: Grep SystemOut.log/SystemErr.log for stack traces that reference InvokerTransformer, ChainedTransformer, LazyMap or AnnotationInvocationHandler, or for deserialisation-related ClassCastException entries.
      • File integrity: Alert on new .jsp, .war or .class files in installedApps, wstemp or temp outside change windows. On Windows, Sysmon EID 11 captures these.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Serialized-object interfaces in certain IBM analytics, business solutions, cognitive, IT infrastructure, and mobile and social products allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a crafted serialized Java object, related to the InvokerTransformer class in the Apache Commons Collections library.

    Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    ibmsterling_b2b_integrator
    • 5.2
    • —
    ibmsterling_integrator
    • 5.1
    • —
    ibmtivoli_common_reporting
    • 2.1.1
    • 2.1
    • 3.1.0.2
    • 3.1.0.1
    • 3.1.2.1
    • 3.1
    • 2.1.1.2
    • 3.1.2
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    ibmwatson_content_analytics
    • 3.0 – ≤ 3.0.0.6
    • 3.5 – ≤ 3.5.0.3
    • —
    • —
    ibmwatson_explorer_analytical_components
    • 11.0
    • 10.0 – ≤ 10.0.0.2
    • —
    • —
    ibmwatson_explorer_annotation_administration_console
    • 10.0 – ≤ 10.0.0.2
    • 11.0
    • —
    • —
    ibmwebsphere_application_server
    • 8.5.5.5
    • 8.5.0.0
    • 8.5
    • 8.0.0.0
    • 7.0.0.0
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-502Deserialization of Untrusted Data

      Base

      The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently ensuring that the resulting data will be valid.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-502

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    Exploit-DBEDB-ID 41613 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • www-01.ibm.comsupport/docview.wss?uid=swg21971733x_refsource_CONFIRM, Broken link
    • www-01.ibm.comsupport/docview.wss?uid=swg21971342x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • www-01.ibm.comsupport/docview.wss?uid=swg21971758x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • securityfocus.com77653Vulnerability database, x_refsource_BID, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • securitytracker.com1035125Vulnerability database, x_refsource_SECTRACK, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • www-01.ibm.comsupport/docview.wss?uid=swg21972799x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • www-01.ibm.comsupport/docview.wss?uid=swg21971376x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • exploit-db.com41613Exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • www-01.ibm.comsupport/docview.wss?uid=swg21970575x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2015-7450government-resource, US government resource
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