What is CVE-2021-20461?

CVE-2021-20461 is a medium-severity vulnerability in IBM Cognos Analytics, classified under Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2021-06-30.

How severe is CVE-2021-20461?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in IBM Cognos Analytics

CVE-2021-20461

IBM Cognos Analytics 10.0 and 11.1 is susceptible to a weakness in the implementation of the System Appearance configuration setting. An attacker could potentially bypass business logic to modify the appearance and behavior of the application. IBM X-Force ID: 196770.

Published 2021-06-30 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.010 (59.8th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 60th percentile — 59.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.010 · newest: 0.010 · change: 0.000

Affected products

IBM Cognos Analytics — versions 11.0, 11.1
IBM Cognos Analytics — versions 11.0.13, 11.1.7
NetApp Oncommand Insight

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-668 — Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere

References

www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6466729 (Vendor Advisory)
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/196770 (VDB Entry, vdb-entry, Vendor Advisory)
security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210720-0007/ (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-20461?: CVE-2021-20461 is a medium-severity vulnerability in IBM Cognos Analytics, classified under Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2021-06-30.
How severe is CVE-2021-20461?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.