Introduction
Unauthorized access to enterprise asset management systems can disrupt operations across utilities, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure. CVE-2025-36386 demonstrates how a single flaw in authentication can expose sensitive operational data and controls to remote attackers.
About IBM Maximo Application Suite: IBM Maximo Application Suite is a leading enterprise asset management platform used globally in sectors such as energy, transportation, and manufacturing. It is a flagship product in IBM's portfolio, with thousands of deployments worldwide, and plays a significant role in digital transformation and operational efficiency for large organizations.
Technical Information
CVE-2025-36386 is classified under CWE-305 (Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness). The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to bypass authentication mechanisms and gain unauthorized access to the IBM Maximo Application Suite. The affected versions are 9.0.0 through 9.0.15 and 9.1.0 through 9.1.4.
The root cause of the vulnerability is not publicly disclosed. However, similar authentication bypass issues in IBM Maximo products have previously been linked to improper access controls, misconfigured user group permissions, or incorrect settings of authentication properties (such as mxe.int.enableosauth). For example, CVE-2023-32333 involved improper configuration of the MAXREG user, and CVE-2022-40616 was related to a disabled authentication property. No public code snippets or proof of concept are available for CVE-2025-36386. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable and does not require prior authentication or user interaction.
Affected Systems and Versions
- IBM Maximo Application Suite 9.0.0 through 9.0.15
- IBM Maximo Application Suite 9.1.0 through 9.1.4
All configurations of these versions are considered vulnerable unless otherwise specified by IBM.
Vendor Security History
IBM has a history of authentication-related vulnerabilities in Maximo products. Notable examples include:
- CVE-2023-32333: Authentication bypass due to improper access controls in Maximo Asset Management (IBM advisory).
- CVE-2022-40616: Authentication bypass related to the
mxe.int.enableosauthproperty (Cybersecurity Help advisory).
IBM typically publishes security bulletins and patches in a timely manner, but recurring authentication issues suggest ongoing challenges in this area.
