📄 Description (English)
IBM Aspera Shares 1.9.9 through 1.11.0 is vulnerable to HTTP header injection, caused by improper validation of input by the HOST headers. This could allow an attacker to conduct various attacks against the vulnerable system, including cross-site scripting, cache poisoning or session hijacking.
🤖 AI Executive Summary
IBM Aspera Shares versions 1.9.9 through 1.11.0 contain an HTTP header injection vulnerability due to improper HOST header validation. This medium-severity flaw (CVSS 5.4) could enable attackers to conduct cross-site scripting, cache poisoning, and session hijacking attacks. No patch is currently available, requiring immediate compensating controls for affected Saudi organizations.
📄 Description (Arabic)
🤖 AI Intelligence Analysis Analyzed: May 26, 2026 10:18
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Impact Assessment
Saudi organizations using IBM Aspera Shares for secure file transfer—particularly in banking (SAMA-regulated institutions), government agencies (NCA oversight), healthcare providers, and energy sector (ARAMCO and subsidiaries)—face elevated risk. The vulnerability enables session hijacking of authenticated users and cache poisoning attacks that could compromise confidential data transfers. Telecom operators (STC, Mobily) using Aspera for content distribution are also at risk. The lack of available patches increases exposure window for critical infrastructure sectors.
🏢 Affected Saudi Sectors
Banking and Financial Services
Government and Public Administration
Healthcare and Medical Services
Energy and Utilities
Telecommunications
Oil and Gas
Education and Research
🎯 MITRE ATT&CK Techniques
⚖️ Saudi Risk Score (AI)
6.2
/ 10.0
🔧 Remediation Steps (English)
Immediate Actions:
1. Inventory all IBM Aspera Shares deployments (versions 1.9.9-1.11.0) across your organization
2. Implement network-level compensating controls: deploy WAF rules to block malicious HOST header patterns
3. Enable HTTP header validation at reverse proxy/load balancer level
4. Restrict Aspera Shares access to trusted internal networks only; disable external access if possible
5. Monitor for exploitation attempts using IDS/IPS signatures
Compensating Controls:
- Configure reverse proxy (nginx/Apache) to validate and sanitize HOST headers before forwarding to Aspera
- Implement strict Content-Security-Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate XSS impact
- Enable HTTP Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS) to prevent session hijacking
- Deploy cache-control headers to prevent cache poisoning
- Implement request rate limiting on Aspera endpoints
Detection Rules:
- Alert on HOST headers containing special characters (%, <, >, ", ', newlines)
- Monitor for multiple HOST header values in single request
- Track unusual cache behavior or content mismatches
- Log all authentication failures and session anomalies
Patching Strategy:
- Contact IBM support for patch timeline and interim security updates
- Plan upgrade to patched version immediately upon availability
- Consider alternative secure file transfer solutions (SFTP, S3) as interim measure
🔧 خطوات المعالجة (العربية)
الإجراءات الفورية:
1. قم بحصر جميع نشرات IBM Aspera Shares (الإصدارات 1.9.9-1.11.0) عبر مؤسستك
2. طبّق ضوابط تعويضية على مستوى الشبكة: نشّط قواعد WAF لحجب أنماط رؤوس HOST الضارة
3. فعّل التحقق من رؤوس HTTP على مستوى الوكيل العكسي/موازن التحميل
4. قيّد الوصول إلى Aspera Shares للشبكات الداخلية الموثوقة فقط؛ عطّل الوصول الخارجي إن أمكن
5. راقب محاولات الاستغلال باستخدام توقيعات IDS/IPS
الضوابط التعويضية:
- كوّن الوكيل العكسي (nginx/Apache) للتحقق من رؤوس HOST وتنظيفها قبل إعادة التوجيه
- طبّق سياسة Content-Security-Policy (CSP) صارمة لتخفيف تأثير XSS
- فعّل HTTP Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS) لمنع اختطاف الجلسات
- طبّق رؤوس التحكم في الذاكرة المؤقتة لمنع تسميمها
- نفّذ تحديد معدل الطلبات على نقاط نهاية Aspera
قواعد الكشف:
- تنبيهات على رؤوس HOST تحتوي على أحرف خاصة (%, <, >, ", ', أسطر جديدة)
- مراقبة قيم رؤوس HOST المتعددة في طلب واحد
- تتبع سلوك الذاكرة المؤقتة غير المعتاد أو عدم تطابق المحتوى
- تسجيل جميع فشل المصادقة والشذوذ في الجلسات
استراتيجية التصحيح:
- تواصل مع دعم IBM للحصول على جدول زمني للتصحيح والتحديثات الأمنية المؤقتة
- خطّط للترقية إلى الإصدار المصحح فور توفره
- فكّر في حلول بديلة آمنة لنقل الملفات (SFTP, S3) كإجراء مؤقت
📋 Regulatory Compliance Mapping
🟢 NCA ECC 2024
ECC 2024 A.14.2.1 - Information security requirements for supplier relationships
ECC 2024 A.14.2.5 - Addressing information security in supplier agreements
ECC 2024 A.5.23 - Information security for cloud services
ECC 2024 A.8.3.1 - Access control and authentication mechanisms
🔵 SAMA CSF
SAMA CSF 1.1 - Governance and Risk Management
SAMA CSF 2.2 - Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Security
SAMA CSF 2.2.1 - Access Control and Authentication
SAMA CSF 2.2.4 - Data Protection and Privacy
🟡 ISO 27001:2022
ISO 27001:2022 A.5.3 - Segregation of duties
ISO 27001:2022 A.8.1 - User endpoint devices
ISO 27001:2022 A.8.2 - Privileged access rights
ISO 27001:2022 A.8.3 - Information access restriction
ISO 27001:2022 A.13.1 - Network security
🟣 PCI DSS v4.0.1
PCI DSS 6.2 - Ensure security patches are installed
PCI DSS 6.5.1 - Injection flaws prevention
PCI DSS 6.5.10 - Cross-site scripting (XSS) prevention
🔗 References & Sources 1
📦 Affected Products / CPE 1 entries
ibm:aspera_shares