CVE-2022-22488 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting IBM OpenBMC firmware versions OP910 and OP940. OpenBMC is an open-source Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) firmware stack used to manage and monitor server hardware independently of the host operating system. This vulnerability arises from insufficient controls on the rate at which a privileged user can upload or delete Certificate Authority (CA) certificates. Specifically, a privileged user can cause a denial of service (DoS) condition by rapidly uploading or deleting a large number of CA certificates in a short timeframe. This behavior can exhaust system resources or destabilize the OpenBMC service, leading to unavailability of BMC management functions. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling), indicating that the system does not properly limit resource consumption triggered by user actions. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.9, reflecting a medium severity with the vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. This means the attack can be performed remotely over the network, requires low attack complexity, but does require high privileges (privileged user) and no user interaction. The impact is limited to availability, with no confidentiality or integrity loss. No known exploits have been reported in the wild, and no patches are currently linked in the provided data. The vulnerability affects the availability of BMC management interfaces, which are critical for remote hardware management, firmware updates, and monitoring in enterprise server environments.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant in environments relying on IBM OpenBMC firmware for server management, particularly in data centers, cloud providers, and large enterprises. A denial of service on the BMC can disrupt remote management capabilities, delaying critical maintenance, monitoring, or emergency interventions. This can lead to increased downtime, slower incident response, and potential cascading effects on business continuity. While the vulnerability requires privileged access, insider threats or compromised administrative accounts could exploit it. Additionally, organizations with automated management workflows dependent on BMC availability may experience operational disruptions. The lack of confidentiality or integrity impact reduces the risk of data breaches, but the availability impact on critical infrastructure management is non-trivial. Given the growing reliance on remote management in European data centers, this vulnerability could affect sectors such as finance, telecommunications, manufacturing, and government services, where IBM hardware is deployed.

1. Limit privileged user access strictly to trusted personnel and enforce strong authentication and authorization controls to reduce the risk of exploitation. 2. Monitor and audit BMC user activities, especially certificate management operations, to detect unusual patterns such as rapid certificate uploads or deletions. 3. Implement rate limiting or throttling mechanisms at the management interface level, if possible, to prevent excessive certificate operations within short timeframes. 4. Where feasible, isolate BMC management networks from general enterprise networks to reduce exposure to remote attacks. 5. Engage with IBM support or security advisories to obtain patches or firmware updates addressing this issue as they become available. 6. Develop incident response plans that include procedures for BMC recovery or reboot in case of DoS conditions. 7. Consider deploying network-level protections such as firewall rules or intrusion detection systems to monitor and control access to BMC interfaces. 8. Regularly review and update CA certificates to avoid unnecessary certificate management operations that could trigger the vulnerability.