Security Bulletin
Summary
Libcurl is used by IBM Safer Payments as part of the AVRO support for Kafka. This vulnerability has been addressed.
Vulnerability Details
CVEID: CVE-2024-9681
DESCRIPTION: When curl is asked to use HSTS, the expiry time for a subdomain might
overwrite a parent domain's cache entry, making it end sooner or later than
otherwise intended.
This affects curl using applications that enable HSTS and use URLs with the
insecure `HTTP://` scheme and perform transfers with hosts like
`x.example.com` as well as `example.com` where the first host is a subdomain
of the second host.
(The HSTS cache either needs to have been populated manually or there needs to
have been previous HTTPS accesses done as the cache needs to have entries for
the domains involved to trigger this problem.)
When `x.example.com` responds with `Strict-Transport-Security:` headers, this
bug can make the subdomain's expiry timeout *bleed over* and get set for the
parent domain `example.com` in curl's HSTS cache.
The result of a triggered bug is that HTTP accesses to `example.com` get
converted to HTTPS for a different period of time than what was asked for by
the origin server. If `example.com` for example stops supporting HTTPS at its
expiry time, curl might then fail to access `http://example.com` until the
(wrongly set) timeout expires. This bug can also expire the parent's entry
*earlier*, thus making curl inadvertently switch back to insecure HTTP earlier
than otherwise intended.
CWE: CWE-697: Incorrect Comparison
CVSS Source: IBM X-Force
CVSS Base score: 3.7
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N)
Affected Products and Versions
| Affected Product(s) | Version(s) |
| IBM Safer Payments | 6.4.0.00 - 6.4.2.10, 6.5.0.00 - 6.5.0.08 , 6.6.0.00 - 6.6.0.06, 6.7.0.00 - 6.7.0.02 |
Remediation/Fixes
Update IBM Safer Payments to version 6.4.2.11, 6.5.0.09, 6.6.0.07, 6.7.0.03, or higher.
Refer to the IBM Safer Payments documentation to download the updates.
Workarounds and Mitigations
Disable the Kafka Interface on all instances in the cluster.
Get Notified about Future Security Bulletins
References
Acknowledgement
Change History
11 Sep 2025: Initial Publication
*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.
Disclaimer
According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an "industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity and help to determine urgency and priority of response." IBM PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES ""AS IS"" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY. In addition to other efforts to address potential vulnerabilities, IBM periodically updates the record of components contained in our product offerings. As part of that effort, if IBM identifies previously unidentified packages in a product/service inventory, we address relevant vulnerabilities regardless of CVE date. Inclusion of an older CVEID does not demonstrate that the referenced product has been used by IBM since that date, nor that IBM was aware of a vulnerability as of that date. We are making clients aware of relevant vulnerabilities as we become aware of them. "Affected Products and Versions" referenced in IBM Security Bulletins are intended to be only products and versions that are supported by IBM and have not passed their end-of-support or warranty date. Thus, failure to reference unsupported or extended-support products and versions in this Security Bulletin does not constitute a determination by IBM that they are unaffected by the vulnerability. Reference to one or more unsupported versions in this Security Bulletin shall not create an obligation for IBM to provide fixes for any unsupported or extended-support products or versions.
Document Location
Worldwide
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Document Information
Modified date:
11 September 2025
Initial Publish date:
11 September 2025
UID
ibm17244617