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IBM AIX CVE-2026-16846

| EUVDEUVD-2026-62736 MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2026-08-19 ibm GHSA-373j-r8x5-fj8c
6.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: ibm
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Severity by source

Vendor (ibm) PRIMARY
6.5 MEDIUM
AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI
6.5 MEDIUM

Adjacent network vector aligns with IBM's own assessment; unauthenticated null pointer dereference produces only a crash with no confidentiality or integrity impact.

3.1 AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (ibm).

CVSS VectorVendor: ibm

Attack Vector
Adjacent
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
Aug 19, 2026 - 20:59 vuln.today
CVE Published
Aug 19, 2026 - 19:33 nvd
MEDIUM 6.5

DescriptionCVE.org

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service due to a null pointer dereference.

AnalysisAI

Denial of service in IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and PowerVM VIOS 4.1 is achievable by an adjacent-network attacker exploiting a null pointer dereference, capable of crashing the targeted system without requiring authentication or user interaction. The vulnerability affects IBM's enterprise UNIX operating system and its PowerVM Virtual I/O Server layer, where availability is operationally critical for hosted workloads. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, and IBM has released a remediation patch via official advisory.

Technical ContextAI

IBM AIX is a proprietary UNIX-based operating system (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:ibm:aix:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) widely deployed in enterprise, financial, and government sectors. PowerVM VIOS (Virtual I/O Server, CPE: cpe:2.3:a:ibm:powervm_vios:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) is the virtualization I/O management layer underpinning IBM's PowerVM hypervisor environments, brokering storage and network I/O for logical partitions. CWE-476 (Null Pointer Dereference) identifies the root cause class: a code path dereferences a pointer that has not been validated as non-NULL prior to use, producing an unhandled memory fault that crashes the affected process or kernel context. In AIX and VIOS, such a crash can terminate the operating system or the virtualization control plane entirely, causing loss of availability for all workloads hosted on the affected system. The adjacent network attack vector (AV:A) indicates the triggering input must originate from the same local network segment, subnet, or VLAN as the target - not from the open internet - suggesting the vulnerable code path is exposed through a network-facing service or protocol listener accessible at Layer 2 proximity.

RemediationAI

The primary remediation is to apply the vendor-released patch referenced in the IBM support advisory at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283858; exact fix version numbers should be obtained directly from that advisory, as they are not independently confirmed in the available intelligence. Until the patch can be applied, the adjacent network attack vector (AV:A) makes network segmentation the most effective compensating control: isolating IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS management and data interfaces to dedicated VLANs with ingress access-control lists restricting traffic to trusted management hosts and subnets substantially raises the bar for exploitation. Implementing host-based firewall rules on AIX (via the native ipfilter facility) to limit inbound connections to known administrative sources provides an additional layer of defense. Note that these network controls reduce reachability but do not eliminate the vulnerability - the IBM patch remains the definitive fix, and controls should be treated as temporary mitigations only.

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CVE-2026-16846 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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