What is CVE-2020-4879?

CVE-2020-4879 is a critical-severity vulnerability in IBM Cognos Controller, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2022-01-21.

How severe is CVE-2020-4879?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Auth bypass in IBM Cognos Controller

CVE-2020-4879

IBM Cognos Controller 10.4.0, 10.4.1, and 10.4.2 could allow a remote attacker to bypass security restrictions, caused by improper validation of authentication cookies. IBM X-Force ID: 190847.

Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication

Published 2022-01-21 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.015 (73.6th percentile), scored 2026-10-20.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 74th percentile — 73.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.015 · newest: 0.015 · change: 0.000

Affected products

IBM Cognos Controller — versions 10.4.0, 10.4.1, 10.4.2
IBM Cognos Controller — versions 10.4.0, 10.4.1, 10.4.2
Microsoft Windows

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-287 — Improper Authentication

References

www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6509856 (Vendor Advisory)
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/190847 (VDB Entry, vdb-entry, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-4879?: CVE-2020-4879 is a critical-severity vulnerability in IBM Cognos Controller, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2022-01-21.
How severe is CVE-2020-4879?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.