CVE-2025-36020Network attack vector

Credential disclosure via cleartext transmission

Published Aug 6, 2025 · Updated Oct 22, 2025

Cleartext credential transmission in IBM Guardium Data Protection 11.5, 12.0, and 12.1 allows remote attackers to read credentials. IBM has not disclosed the affected channel, protocol, request path, or operation that sends the credentials without encryption. Exploitation requires network access to the exposed transmission path and yields credential confidentiality loss without reported integrity or availability impact.

CVSS severity5.9
Medium
EPSS probability0.21%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Cleartext credential transmission in IBM Guardium Data Protection 11.5, 12.0, and 12.1 allows remote attackers to read credentials. IBM has not disclosed the affected channel, protocol, request path, or operation that sends the credentials without encryption. Exploitation requires network access to the exposed transmission path and yields credential confidentiality loss without reported integrity or availability impact.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-36020
Published
Aug 6, 2025
Updated
Oct 22, 2025
Vendor
IBM
Product
Guardium Data Protection
Classifications
CWE-319, T1040
Attack vector
network
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Aug 6, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Oct 22, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=11.5
  2. Affected versionversion=12.0
  3. Affected versionversion=12.1

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

IBM · Guardium Data Protectionversion=11.5; version=12.0; version=12.1

Published CVSS scores

5.9IBMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
7.5NISTCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-319Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
T1040Network Sniffing

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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