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IBM AIX CVE-2026-16873

| EUVDEUVD-2026-62875 HIGH
Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787)
2026-08-19 ibm GHSA-396g-vpw6-q672
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: ibm
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Severity by source

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

Local-only attack requiring a standard unprivileged account; full C/I/A:H reflects total system compromise via privilege escalation with no scope change.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (ibm).

CVSS VectorVendor: ibm

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

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
Aug 19, 2026 - 20:48 vuln.today
CVE Published
Aug 19, 2026 - 19:41 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionCVE.org

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a local attacker to achieve local privilege escalation due to an out-of-bounds write.

AnalysisAI

Local privilege escalation in IBM AIX 7.2/7.3 and PowerVM VIOS 4.1 stems from an out-of-bounds write (CWE-787) that allows a low-privileged local attacker to achieve complete system compromise across confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The CVSS 7.8 score (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N) reflects low-complexity exploitation requiring only a standard local account - a realistic threshold for insider threats or post-exploitation lateral movement within IBM Power environments. No public exploit code has been identified and this vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog at time of analysis; however, the total C/I/A:H impact on high-value enterprise Unix systems warrants prompt patching.

Technical ContextAI

CWE-787 (Out-of-Bounds Write) is a memory corruption class in which a program writes data beyond the allocated buffer boundary, enabling corruption of adjacent memory regions such as kernel data structures or function pointers. IBM AIX is a proprietary enterprise Unix operating system running exclusively on IBM Power hardware, widely deployed in banking, government, and critical infrastructure. IBM PowerVM VIOS (Virtual I/O Server) is the virtualization management layer on IBM Power systems that provides shared storage and network I/O to AIX and Linux logical partitions (LPARs). Both affected components are identified by CPE wildcard entries - cpe:2.3:a:ibm:aix:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* and cpe:2.3:a:ibm:powervm_vios:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* - indicating the exact sub-version boundaries within AIX 7.2/7.3 and VIOS 4.1 are not narrowed in available NVD data and must be confirmed against the vendor advisory. An out-of-bounds write in a privileged OS component can corrupt kernel privilege control structures, enabling a user-mode process to escalate to root or supervisor level.

RemediationAI

The primary remediation is to apply the IBM-released patch referenced in the vendor advisory at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283858. The exact fixed version number is not stated in available data and must be confirmed directly from the advisory - administrators should consult IBM Fix Central or the advisory page for the applicable Technology Level and Service Pack. As a compensating control while patching is scheduled, restrict local shell access on affected AIX and VIOS hosts to the minimum set of trusted accounts; review and tighten sudoers and setuid configurations to limit privilege escalation pathways, noting this does not eliminate the underlying vulnerability but narrows attacker opportunity. On VIOS hosts specifically, limit padmin and local OS-level account access to authorized virtualization administrators only. Applying network-level controls will not mitigate this local-only vulnerability.

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CVE-2026-16873 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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