CVE-2025-36099VulnerabilityPublished 29 Sep 2025

CVE-2025-36099: IBM WebSphere Application Server · Unthrottled Resource Allocation

Affects IBM WebSphere Application ServerSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.9 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.9Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 24% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 29 Sep 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
IBM WebSphere Application Server	Affected =8.5 =9.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Restrict and monitor privileged user access rigorously to minimize the risk of misuse. 2) Implement strict resource usage policies and monitoring on WebSphere servers to detect abnormal memory consumption early. 3) Apply any available IBM patches or updates as soon as they are released; in the absence of patches, consider temporary workarounds such as limiting request rates or isolating critical WebSphere instances. 4) Employ network segmentation and access controls to limit who can send requests to the WebSphere server, especially from privileged accounts. 5) Conduct regular audits of privileged user activities and implement anomaly detection to identify potential exploitation attempts. 6) Prepare incident response plans specifically addressing DoS scenarios caused by resource exhaustion. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling privileged access and proactive resource monitoring tailored to this vulnerability's characteristics.

Description

IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 and 9.0 is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by sending a specially-crafted request. A privileged user could exploit this vulnerability to cause the server to consume memory resources.

Impact

For European organizations using IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 or 9.0, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to service availability. Organizations relying on WebSphere for critical business applications could experience service disruptions if a privileged user exploits this flaw to exhaust memory resources. This could lead to downtime, impacting business continuity and potentially causing financial losses and reputational damage. Since exploitation requires privileged access, the threat is more relevant in environments where internal threat actors or compromised privileged accounts exist. In sectors such as finance, government, healthcare, and telecommunications—where WebSphere is commonly deployed—the impact could be significant if availability is compromised. Additionally, regulatory requirements in Europe around service availability and incident reporting (e.g., under GDPR for operational resilience) mean that organizations must address this vulnerability promptly to avoid compliance issues.

CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #25
The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.
Requirements
Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.
Architecture and Design
Limit the amount of resources that are accessible to unprivileged users. Set per-user limits for resources. Allow the system administrator to define these limits. Be careful to avoid CWE-410.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.1 (opens in a new tab)
V11.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Exponential Data Expansion (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data Parameter Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

ibm.com/support/pages/node/7246549 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 29 Sep 2025, 18:28 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-770

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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