CVE-2025-36041 is a medium-severity vulnerability identified in multiple versions of the IBM MQ Operator, specifically versions 2.0.0 through 2.0.29 LTS, various 3.x versions under CD and SC2 releases. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-295, which relates to improper certificate validation. In this case, the IBM MQ Operator's Native HA CRR (High Availability Cross Region Replication) feature can be misconfigured to use a private key and certificate chain different from the intended ones. This misconfiguration flaw can lead to the disclosure of sensitive information or enable an attacker with certain privileges to perform unauthorized actions within the MQ Operator environment. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.7 (medium severity), with the vector indicating that the attack requires local access (AV:L), high attack complexity (AC:H), high privileges (PR:H), no user interaction (UI:N), unchanged scope (S:U), low confidentiality impact (C:L), high integrity impact (I:H), and no availability impact (A:N). This means exploitation requires an attacker to have high privileges on the local system and the ability to configure the MQ Operator, but no user interaction is needed. The vulnerability could allow an attacker to manipulate certificate validation processes, potentially leading to unauthorized configuration changes or exposure of sensitive cryptographic material. No known exploits are reported in the wild yet, and no patches are linked in the provided data, indicating that remediation may require vendor updates or configuration changes once available.

For European organizations using IBM MQ Operator in their messaging and integration infrastructure, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the integrity of their messaging environment. Unauthorized actions enabled by improper certificate validation could allow attackers to alter configurations, potentially leading to message interception, manipulation, or unauthorized access to sensitive data flows. Although the confidentiality impact is rated low, the high integrity impact means that attackers could disrupt business processes relying on MQ messaging, causing operational issues or data corruption. Given that IBM MQ is widely used in financial services, manufacturing, and government sectors across Europe, exploitation could affect critical business operations and compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR. The requirement for high privileges and local access reduces the likelihood of remote exploitation but emphasizes the need for strict internal access controls. The absence of known exploits suggests that the threat is currently theoretical but should be addressed proactively to prevent future attacks.

European organizations should immediately review and audit their IBM MQ Operator configurations, especially focusing on the Native HA CRR setup to ensure that private keys and certificate chains are correctly configured and match intended values. Access to systems running MQ Operator should be restricted to trusted administrators with minimal necessary privileges to reduce the risk of malicious configuration changes. Implement strict role-based access controls (RBAC) and monitor for unusual configuration changes or certificate usage. Organizations should stay alert for IBM security advisories and apply patches or updates as soon as they become available. Additionally, consider implementing certificate pinning or validation checks external to the MQ Operator to detect anomalies. Regularly audit logs related to MQ Operator operations and certificate management to detect potential misuse. Network segmentation can further limit the exposure of MQ Operator components to only trusted network zones. Finally, conduct internal penetration testing focused on privilege escalation and certificate validation weaknesses to identify and remediate gaps before attackers can exploit them.