Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate with valid restricted SSH/SFTP credentials
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DeliveryConnect to chroot-confined service
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ExploitTrigger improper ChrootDirectory enforcement
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ExecutionEscape intended confinement boundary
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ImpactAccess files outside restricted scope
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Least privilege enforcement
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the targeted IBM i system (7.3, 7.4, 7.5, or 7.6) to be configured with the ChrootDirectory directive to confine SSH/SFTP users, and the attacker must possess valid credentials for such a restricted account (PR:L authenticated). The flaw does not affect default deployments that do not use chroot confinement - it is only relevant where ChrootDirectory is explicitly set and relied upon for isolation. Limiting factors: valid authentication is mandatory (no anonymous/unauthenticated path), the system must actually use the chroot feature, and impact is bounded to low confidentiality and integrity with no availability effect. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-severity, operator-dependent weakness rather than a high-priority emergency. The provided CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N, base 5.4) describes a remote but authenticated (PR:L) attacker with low complexity who gains only low confidentiality and low integrity impact and no availability impact - consistent with a confined user escaping an intended ChrootDirectory restriction rather than full compromise. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC indicator is present in the supplied data: no public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the vulnerability is not on CISA KEV, so there is no evidence of active or widespread exploitation. The signals are internally consistent (authenticated low-impact confinement bypass), so there is no CVSS-versus-description conflict to flag; the main caveat is that EPSS/KEV/POC telemetry is simply absent, not low, meaning real-world exploitation likelihood cannot be quantified from the input. Overall this is a legitimate hardening/patch item for environments that rely on chroot confinement for SFTP/SSH users, but it is a defense-in-depth bypass requiring valid credentials, not a drop-everything critical issue. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker who already holds valid but restricted SSH/SFTP credentials on an IBM i system connects to a service configured with ChrootDirectory to jail that account. Because the directive is not properly enforced, the attacker escapes the intended chroot boundary and reads or modifies files outside the confinement, gaining access the configuration was meant to prevent. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, and the attack requires low complexity but valid authentication. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 16, 2026
IBM i releases 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6 can allow a remote authenticated attacker to slip past the ChrootDirectory confinement that is supposed to isolate SSH/SFTP users, exposing files and data outside the directory they were meant to be restricted to. The weakness is entirely dependent on configuration: it only affects systems that explicitly set ChrootDirectory in sshd_config and rely on it as an isolation boundary, while default deployments without chroot confinement are not impacted. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, and because a valid restricted-account credential is mandatory and the assessed impact is bounded to low confidentiality and integrity loss with no availability effect, this rates as a moderate, operator-dependent issue rather than an emergency.
RemediationAI
Patch available per vendor advisory: IBM has released fixes for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6, and the specific PTF numbers and installation instructions are listed on the IBM support page at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7292273, so the primary action is to determine the applicable PTF for each release level in use and apply it during the next maintenance window. Until that PTF is loaded, the weakness cannot be removed by configuration alone because the flaw is in the enforcement of ChrootDirectory itself; the highest-value compensating control is to tighten the IBM i authority model around the chrooted accounts - audit and reduce the object and IFS authorities granted to users who authenticate into chroot sessions so that even a session that escapes the jail cannot read or modify anything sensitive, at the cost of extra administrative effort and possible breakage of legitimate file-transfer workflows. In parallel, restrict who can reach the SSH/SFTP service at all by limiting it to trusted source IP addresses or subnets through firewall or IBM i packet filtering, and review the list of accounts permitted to use chroot confinement so that only accounts genuinely requiring it are provisioned, accepting that this reduces flexibility for remote users. Note that simply removing or disabling ChrootDirectory is not a substitute remediation - it removes the isolation boundary entirely rather than repairing it - and any interim monitoring of file access outside expected directories is a detective, not preventive, measure.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The issue maps to CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management) and centres on the OpenSSH-based SSH/SFTP server shipped with IBM i. The ChrootDirectory directive in sshd_config is the mechanism that confines an authenticated session to a nominated directory subtree and simultaneously drops session privileges so the user's apparent filesystem root becomes the chroot target; it is a standard way to give file-transfer-only accounts a jailed view of the Integrated File System. CVE-2026-17491 describes improper enforcement of that directive, meaning the confinement the administrator believes is in force can fail to properly restrict the session, allowing the attacker to reach resources outside the intended jail. The affected CPE entry, cpe:2.3:a:ibm:i:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*, is version-wildcarded, so the authoritative affected scope comes from IBM's own statement covering IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6 rather than from the CPE string. The CVSS vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N confirms a network-reachable, low-complexity attack that requires the attacker to already hold valid low-privileged credentials (PR:L) and that yields only limited read and limited write impact, with no denial-of-service component; because the weakness is exploitation of a misapplied or unenforced control rather than memory corruption or injection, exploitation cannot upgrade impact beyond what the underlying IBM i object authorities permit.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Remote SSH access (AV:N) by an authenticated confined user (PR:L) escaping a chroot jail yields limited file read/write (C:L/I:L), no availability impact, scope unchanged.
Primary rating from Vendor (ibm).
CVSS VectorVendor: ibm
DescriptionCVE.org
IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, and 7.6 is could allow a remote authenticated attacker to bypass security restrictions due to improper enforcement of the ChrootDirectory configuration directive.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.
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EUVD-2026-103137
GHSA-qp6p-gw78-jpxj
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB