CVE-2025-3629 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting IBM InfoSphere Information Server versions 11.7.0.0 through 11.7.1.6. The vulnerability stems from improper ownership management (CWE-282) within the application, which allows an authenticated user with legitimate access to the system to delete comments made by other users. This flaw indicates that the application does not correctly enforce ownership or permission checks on comment deletion operations, permitting unauthorized modification of user-generated content. The vulnerability requires the attacker to have authenticated access (PR:L) but does not require any user interaction (UI:N) beyond that. The attack vector is network-based (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), meaning an attacker can exploit this remotely with relative ease once authenticated. The impact is limited to integrity (I:L) as confidentiality and availability are not affected. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. Given the nature of the vulnerability, it primarily affects collaboration and data governance workflows within InfoSphere environments, potentially undermining trust in data annotations or audit trails maintained via comments. However, it does not allow for data exfiltration, system compromise, or denial of service.

For European organizations using IBM InfoSphere Information Server, this vulnerability could undermine the integrity of data governance and collaboration processes. InfoSphere is often used in data integration, quality, and governance scenarios, where comments and annotations may be critical for audit trails, compliance documentation, or collaborative decision-making. Unauthorized deletion of comments could lead to loss of important contextual information, complicating compliance with regulations such as GDPR that require accurate record-keeping and traceability. While the vulnerability does not directly expose sensitive data or disrupt system availability, it could facilitate insider threats or malicious actors with legitimate access to manipulate audit trails or mislead data stewards. This risk is particularly relevant for sectors with stringent data governance requirements, including finance, healthcare, and public administration. The medium CVSS score reflects the limited scope of impact but does not diminish the potential operational and compliance risks for affected organizations.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately review and tighten access controls within IBM InfoSphere Information Server to ensure that only trusted users have comment deletion privileges. Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) that strictly enforce ownership boundaries. 2) Monitor and audit comment deletion activities to detect unusual or unauthorized deletions, leveraging InfoSphere’s logging capabilities or integrating with SIEM solutions for real-time alerts. 3) Apply any vendor patches or updates as soon as they become available, even though no patches are currently linked, maintain close communication with IBM support channels for updates. 4) Consider implementing compensating controls such as immutable logging or external audit trails to preserve comment history and prevent tampering. 5) Educate users about the importance of safeguarding their credentials to prevent misuse by authenticated attackers. 6) If feasible, restrict network access to the InfoSphere server to trusted networks and use multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of unauthorized access. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on ownership enforcement, monitoring, and compensating controls specific to the nature of this vulnerability.