Personal Communications: Unprotected Alternate Channel
CVE-2025-1095 is a high-severity unprotected alternate channel vulnerability in Personal Communications from IBM, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. Affected Personal Communications versions: v14; v15. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.15% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.
High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.
What to do
- Check which version of Personal Communications you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
- Read the advisory on ibm.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
Affected products and versions
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBM | Personal Communications | v14; v15 | Not stated |
Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.
How the severity score breaks down
- Attack vector
- LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
- Attack complexity
- LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
- Privileges required
- LowA basic user account is enough.
- User interaction
- NoneNo action by a victim is required.
- Scope
- UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
- Confidentiality
- HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
- Integrity
- HighData or code can be modified at will.
- Availability
- HighThe component can be taken down completely.
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by NVD.
| Scoring system | Score | Severity | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | 8.8 | High | CNA (us.ibm.com) |
| CVSS 3.1 | 7.8 | High | NVD |
Official description
IBM Personal Communications v14 and v15 include a Windows service that is vulnerable to local privilege escalation (LPE). The vulnerability allows any interactively logged in users on the target computer to run commands with full privileges in the context of NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. This allows for a low privileged attacker to escalate their privileges. This vulnerability is due to an incomplete fix for CVE-2024-25029.
Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.
The underlying weakness: Unprotected Alternate Channel
The product protects a primary channel, but it does not use the same level of protection for an alternate channel.
How developers prevent this class of flaw
- Identify all alternate channels and use the same protection mechanisms that are used for the primary channels.
More Unprotected Alternate Channel vulnerabilities (CWE-420)
Timeline
- CVE record published.
- CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
- Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).
References
Advisories
Other vulnerabilities in Personal Communications
- 10.0 Critical severity
Recent Unprotected Alternate Channel vulnerabilities
- 8.1 High severity
- 8.1 High severity
- 7.3 High severity
- 10.0 Critical severity
Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation Exploited
- 8.8 High severity
Spotted an error? Tell us.