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Security Bulletin: IBM webMethods BPM is vulnerable to a denial of service due to snappy-java

Security Bulletin


Summary

IBM webMethods BPM uses snappy-java which is automatically pulled in by kafka-clients as a compression codec dependency. The project doesn't directly use Snappy; it's used internally by Kafka for efficient message compression when streaming events through webmethods's event streaming infrastructure.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID:   CVE-2023-34455
DESCRIPTION:   snappy-java is a fast compressor/decompressor for Java. Due to use of an unchecked chunk length, an unrecoverable fatal error can occur in versions prior to 1.1.10.1. The code in the function hasNextChunk in the fileSnappyInputStream.java checks if a given stream has more chunks to read. It does that by attempting to read 4 bytes. If it wasn’t possible to read the 4 bytes, the function returns false. Otherwise, if 4 bytes were available, the code treats them as the length of the next chunk. In the case that the `compressed` variable is null, a byte array is allocated with the size given by the input data. Since the code doesn’t test the legality of the `chunkSize` variable, it is possible to pass a negative number (such as 0xFFFFFFFF which is -1), which will cause the code to raise a `java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException` exception. A worse case would happen when passing a huge positive value (such as 0x7FFFFFFF), which would raise the fatal `java.lang.OutOfMemoryError` error. Version 1.1.10.1 contains a patch for this issue.
CWE:   CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
CVSS Source:   IBM X-Force
CVSS Base score:   7.5
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2023-34454
DESCRIPTION:   snappy-java is a fast compressor/decompressor for Java. Due to unchecked multiplications, an integer overflow may occur in versions prior to 1.1.10.1, causing an unrecoverable fatal error. The function `compress(char[] input)` in the file `Snappy.java` receives an array of characters and compresses it. It does so by multiplying the length by 2 and passing it to the rawCompress` function. Since the length is not tested, the multiplication by two can cause an integer overflow and become negative. The rawCompress function then uses the received length and passes it to the natively compiled maxCompressedLength function, using the returned value to allocate a byte array. Since the maxCompressedLength function treats the length as an unsigned integer, it doesn’t care that it is negative, and it returns a valid value, which is casted to a signed integer by the Java engine. If the result is negative, a `java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException` exception will be raised while trying to allocate the array `buf`. On the other side, if the result is positive, the `buf` array will successfully be allocated, but its size might be too small to use for the compression, causing a fatal Access Violation error. The same issue exists also when using the `compress` functions that receive double, float, int, long and short, each using a different multiplier that may cause the same issue. The issue most likely won’t occur when using a byte array, since creating a byte array of size 0x80000000 (or any other negative value) is impossible in the first place. Version 1.1.10.1 contains a patch for this issue.
CWE:   CWE-190: Integer Overflow or Wraparound
CVSS Source:   IBM X-Force
CVSS Base score:   7.5
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2023-34453
DESCRIPTION:   snappy-java is a fast compressor/decompressor for Java. Due to unchecked multiplications, an integer overflow may occur in versions prior to 1.1.10.1, causing a fatal error. The function `shuffle(int[] input)` in the file `BitShuffle.java` receives an array of integers and applies a bit shuffle on it. It does so by multiplying the length by 4 and passing it to the natively compiled shuffle function. Since the length is not tested, the multiplication by four can cause an integer overflow and become a smaller value than the true size, or even zero or negative. In the case of a negative value, a `java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException` exception will raise, which can crash the program. In a case of a value that is zero or too small, the code that afterwards references the shuffled array will assume a bigger size of the array, which might cause exceptions such as `java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException`. The same issue exists also when using the `shuffle` functions that receive a double, float, long and short, each using a different multiplier that may cause the same issue. Version 1.1.10.1 contains a patch for this vulnerability.
CWE:   CWE-190: Integer Overflow or Wraparound
CVSS Source:   IBM X-Force
CVSS Base score:   5.9
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2023-43642
DESCRIPTION:   snappy-java is a Java port of the snappy, a fast C++ compresser/decompresser developed by Google. The SnappyInputStream was found to be vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks when decompressing data with a too large chunk size. Due to missing upper bound check on chunk length, an unrecoverable fatal error can occur. All versions of snappy-java including the latest released version 1.1.10.3 are vulnerable to this issue. A fix has been introduced in commit `9f8c3cf74` which will be included in the 1.1.10.4 release. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should only accept compressed data from trusted sources.
CWE:   CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
CVSS Source:   IBM X-Force
CVSS Base score:   7.5
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

Affected Products and Versions

Affected Product(s)Version(s)
IBM webMethods BPM 11.1

Remediation/Fixes

IBM strongly recommends addressing the vulnerability now by applying the mentioned core fixes or later core fixes for the affected versions and following the respective readme document.

IS_11.1_Core_Fix9 or later

Fixes can be downloaded and installed via IBM webMethods Update Manager. Refer to How to download webMethods Software ( https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7232491 )

Workarounds and Mitigations

None

Get Notified about Future Security Bulletins

References

Off

Acknowledgement

Change History

17 Feb 2026: 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:
16 February 2026

Initial Publish date:
17 February 2026

UID

ibm17260939