CVE-2025-1333 is a medium-severity vulnerability identified in IBM MQ Operator versions ranging from 2.0.0 LTS through various 3.x releases including 3.5.1 CD and 3.2.0 SC2. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-214, which involves the invocation of processes using visible sensitive information. Specifically, when IBM MQ Container is deployed with the IBM MQ Operator configured alongside Cloud Pak for Integration Keycloak, sensitive information may be inadvertently exposed to users with privileged access. This exposure arises because the MQ Operator invokes processes in a manner that reveals sensitive data, potentially through command-line arguments or environment variables that are visible to privileged users on the host or container environment. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 6.0, reflecting a medium severity level, with the vector indicating that the attack requires local access (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), high privileges (PR:H), no user interaction (UI:N), and a scope change (S:C). The impact primarily affects confidentiality (C:H), with no direct impact on integrity or availability. No known exploits are reported in the wild at this time, and no patches are explicitly linked in the provided data. The vulnerability is significant because it can lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information such as credentials or tokens used by the MQ Operator in containerized environments, potentially facilitating further attacks if leveraged by malicious insiders or compromised privileged accounts.

For European organizations utilizing IBM MQ Operator in containerized environments, especially those integrating with Cloud Pak for Integration Keycloak, this vulnerability poses a risk of sensitive information leakage to privileged users. This could include system administrators or operators who have elevated access but should not have visibility into sensitive credentials or tokens. The exposure of such information could lead to unauthorized access to message queues, interception or manipulation of sensitive business data, and potential lateral movement within the network. Given the critical role of IBM MQ in enterprise messaging and integration workflows, any compromise could disrupt business processes, lead to data breaches, and violate compliance requirements such as GDPR. The medium severity indicates that while exploitation requires high privileges and local access, the confidentiality impact is high, making insider threats or compromised privileged accounts the primary concern. European organizations in finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, and government sectors that rely on IBM MQ for critical messaging infrastructure are particularly at risk.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately review and restrict privileged user access to only those who require it, implementing strict role-based access controls (RBAC) and just-in-time (JIT) privilege elevation where possible. 2) Monitor and audit privileged user activities on systems running IBM MQ Operator to detect any unauthorized attempts to access sensitive information. 3) Apply the latest IBM MQ Operator updates and patches as soon as they become available, even though no patch links are currently provided, staying in close contact with IBM security advisories. 4) Configure the IBM MQ Operator and Cloud Pak for Integration Keycloak integration to minimize exposure of sensitive information, such as avoiding passing secrets via command-line arguments or environment variables visible to other processes. 5) Employ container security best practices, including isolating containers, using minimal privilege containers, and securing the host environment to reduce the risk of local privilege escalation. 6) Use encryption and secret management tools to handle sensitive credentials securely within the container orchestration platform (e.g., Kubernetes secrets with appropriate access controls). 7) Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on container environments and privileged access controls to identify and remediate potential information disclosure vectors.