CVE-2022-34339 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting IBM Cognos Analytics versions 11.1.7, 11.2.0, and 11.2.1. The vulnerability arises from the improper storage of user credentials in clear text within the application. Specifically, authenticated users can access these stored credentials without any encryption or obfuscation, leading to an information disclosure issue. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-312 (Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information). The CVSS v3.1 base score is 6.5, reflecting a network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring privileges (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), unchanged scope (S:U), high confidentiality impact (C:H), and no impact on integrity or availability (I:N, A:N). This means that an attacker with legitimate access to the system can easily extract sensitive credential information, potentially escalating privileges or moving laterally within the environment. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no official patches or remediation links have been provided by IBM at the time of publication. The vulnerability primarily impacts the confidentiality of user credentials stored by IBM Cognos Analytics, a widely used business intelligence and analytics platform deployed in many enterprise environments for data reporting and visualization.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the confidentiality of sensitive user credentials within IBM Cognos Analytics deployments. Since Cognos Analytics is often integrated with critical business data and reporting systems, unauthorized access to credentials could enable attackers to impersonate users, access sensitive reports, or escalate privileges to gain broader access to enterprise resources. This could lead to data breaches, exposure of proprietary or personal data, and compliance violations under regulations such as GDPR. The requirement for authenticated access limits exploitation to insiders or attackers who have already compromised a user account, but the low attack complexity and lack of user interaction make it easier for such attackers to leverage this vulnerability. The absence of impact on integrity and availability reduces the risk of direct service disruption but does not mitigate the potential for data exfiltration or lateral movement within networks. European organizations relying heavily on IBM Cognos Analytics for business intelligence, especially in regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, and government, face increased risk of credential theft and subsequent attacks.

1. Restrict access to IBM Cognos Analytics to only trusted and necessary personnel, enforcing strict role-based access controls to minimize the number of authenticated users who can access stored credentials. 2. Implement network segmentation and monitoring around Cognos Analytics servers to detect and prevent unauthorized lateral movement or suspicious access patterns. 3. Regularly audit and review user accounts and permissions within Cognos Analytics to identify and remove unnecessary privileges. 4. Employ multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all users accessing Cognos Analytics to reduce the risk of compromised credentials being exploited. 5. Monitor logs for unusual access or credential retrieval attempts and integrate alerts into security information and event management (SIEM) systems. 6. Until IBM releases an official patch or update, consider encrypting the underlying storage or filesystem where credentials are stored, if feasible, or deploying compensating controls such as application-layer encryption or vaulting credentials externally. 7. Educate users about the risks of credential exposure and enforce strong password policies to limit the impact of potential credential disclosure. 8. Engage with IBM support or security advisories to track the release of patches or updates addressing this vulnerability and plan timely deployment.