CVE Alert: CVE-2025-3355 – IBM – Tivoli Monitoring

**Risk verdict** High risk of unauthenticated remote path traversal allowing arbitrary file reads; no confirmed exploitation observed yet, but patch promptly to remove exposure.

**Why this matters** Exposed file access can reveal sensitive configuration, credentials, or system data, enabling data leakage or groundwork for broader compromises. The business impact includes regulatory risk, potential downtime, and erosion of trust if monitoring data or configurations are exposed.

**Most likely attack path** An attacker would issue a crafted HTTP request with /../ sequences to a vulnerable endpoint, without authentication. No user interaction required beyond a network connection; if successful, local files are exposed, potentially enabling follow-on exploitation using discovered secrets or system context.

**Who is most exposed** Organisations deploying this monitoring component on on‑prem or cloud servers, with management interfaces reachable from untrusted networks, are at greatest risk. Publicly exposed or poorly segmented access vectors greatly increase the chance of exploitation.

Detection ideas

• Look for URL patterns containing ../ or encoded variants in access logs.
• Detect requests that resolve to sensitive file paths or return unusual 403/404 responses.
• Monitor for spikes in requests attempting to read local config or system files.
• IDS/WAF alerts targeting path traversal patterns.
• Correlate with unusual file-read activity from monitoring endpoints.

Mitigation and prioritisation

• Apply the patch to the affected version (SP21) and follow IBM remediation for CVE-2025-3355/3356.
• Restrict network access to the monitoring interface; enforce least-privilege and strong segmentation.
• Disable or tightly gate internet-exposed access; require VPN or bastion for admin traffic.
• Add input validation / path sanitisation at the edge; enhance logging of traversal attempts.
• Schedule compulsory patching within change-management windows; verify in staging before production. If KEV or EPSS indicates higher urgency, elevate to priority 1.