Affects IBM Guardium, a widely deployed enterprise data-protection appliance; root compromise of the appliance undermines data security and admin control and merits broad notification.
CVE-2026-84250
Local hard-coded key allows root password recovery in IBM Guardium 12.2
Is CVE-2026-84250 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-84250 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.09% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-84250?
CVE-2026-84250 is rated High with a CVSS score of 8.4. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-84250?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-84250. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-84250 affect?
CVE-2026-84250 affects IBM Guardium Data Protection 12.2, pkcrypto passkey component. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-84250?
Restrict local access, rotate root creds, monitor logs, deploy vendor patch when released
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Local attacker can recover root password via hard-coded recovery key, achieving root privileges and full control of the Guardium appliance and protected data.
Immediate action required
- affected12.2
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.