CVE-2023-31001 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting IBM Security Verify Access Appliance versions 10.0.0.0 through 10.0.6.1, including the Docker variant 10.0.6.1. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-257, which involves storing passwords or sensitive authentication credentials in a recoverable format. Specifically, the IBM Security Access Manager Container temporarily stores sensitive information, such as passwords, in files accessible to local users on the system. This means that any user with local access privileges could potentially read these files and recover sensitive credentials. The vulnerability does not require user interaction or authentication to exploit but does require local access to the appliance or container environment. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.1, reflecting medium severity, with the vector indicating local attack vector (AV:L), high attack complexity (AC:H), no privileges required (PR:N), 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). No known exploits are reported in the wild at this time, and no patches have been linked yet. The root cause is the insecure handling of sensitive data in temporary files, which violates best practices for credential storage and could lead to credential disclosure if an attacker gains local access to the appliance or container host.

For European organizations using IBM Security Verify Access Appliance, this vulnerability poses a risk of credential compromise if an attacker gains local access to the appliance or container environment. Since the appliance is often used to manage authentication and access control, disclosure of stored passwords could lead to unauthorized access to critical systems and sensitive data, undermining confidentiality. Although the vulnerability does not affect integrity or availability directly, compromised credentials could be leveraged for lateral movement or privilege escalation within the network. The requirement for local access limits remote exploitation but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments where multiple administrators or users have local access, or where container hosts are shared or insufficiently isolated. This could be particularly impactful in regulated sectors such as finance, healthcare, and government institutions across Europe, where identity and access management solutions are critical for compliance and security posture.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately restrict local access to IBM Security Verify Access Appliance hosts and containers to trusted administrators only, enforcing strict access controls and monitoring. 2) Apply the latest IBM security updates and patches as soon as they become available, even though no patch links are currently provided, regularly checking IBM advisories. 3) Implement host-level security controls such as file system permissions and encryption to protect temporary files containing sensitive data. 4) Use container security best practices, including running containers with least privilege, isolating container environments, and monitoring container file systems for unauthorized access. 5) Conduct regular audits and reviews of local user accounts and access logs to detect any suspicious activity. 6) Consider additional compensating controls such as multi-factor authentication and credential rotation policies to reduce the impact of potential credential disclosure.