Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
-
AccessObtain low-privilege AIX/VIOS credentials
-
DeliveryEstablish authenticated network session to vulnerable service
-
ExploitSubmit input containing shell metacharacters
-
ExecutionTrigger unsanitized OS command execution in service process
-
PersistExecute arbitrary commands as service user
-
ImpactAchieve full host compromise including LPAR impact on VIOS
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization OS command sanitization, avoid shell exec
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 1 tactic: Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires a valid account with low-level system privileges on IBM AIX 7.2/7.3 or PowerVM VIOS 4.1, as indicated by CVSS PR:L. The attacker must have network-level reachability to the vulnerable service (AV:N, AC:L). No user interaction is required once credentials and network access are established. Exploitation is not automatable at scale per SSVC assessment, indicating the vulnerable endpoint likely requires non-trivial request construction or session establishment rather than a blind unauthenticated probe. The specific vulnerable service or binary is not identified in publicly available data, which limits the precision of access restriction workarounds. Systems not running AIX 7.2, AIX 7.3, or VIOS 4.1 are not confirmed affected by available data. |
| Impact | The CVSS 8.8 base score reflects a network-reachable attack path (AV:N), low complexity (AC:L), and full C/I/A impact - a combination that is severe in any enterprise context. The PR:L requirement provides a meaningful but low barrier: any valid low-privilege account suffices, making credential hygiene and account hardening the primary compensating factor. The EPSS score of 0.66% at the 49th percentile indicates that real-world exploitation probability sits below median for network CVEs, and the SSVC framework corroborates this with Exploitation status of 'none' and Automatable set to 'no', suggesting the flaw cannot be trivially mass-exploited. However, the SSVC Technical Impact of 'total' means that once an attacker clears the credential barrier, the outcome is full system control - even a mid-sized industrial or government deployment in bytom should treat this as urgent remediation, particularly given that a VIOS compromise cascades to all hosted LPARs on the Power chassis. The absence of KEV listing and confirmed POC keeps the immediate threat tier below what the CVSS score alone implies, but the high-value nature of AIX/VIOS targets in critical sectors warrants prioritized patching. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who has obtained low-privilege credentials - via phishing, credential reuse, or insider access - sends a crafted network request to the vulnerable IBM AIX or VIOS service, embedding shell metacharacters in a parameter that is passed unsanitized to an OS command. The injected payload executes with the privileges of the service process, granting the attacker read, write, and code execution access to the Power system host; on a VIOS target, this compromise can extend to all LPARs sharing virtual storage and networking through that VIOS instance. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis. |
Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.
Alert meAnalysisAIv2 – Sep 04, 2026
OS command injection in IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and PowerVM VIOS 4.1 enables remote attackers holding low-privilege credentials to execute arbitrary OS commands on affected systems. The CWE-78 root cause - improper neutralization of shell-special characters before they reach an OS command - means a valid but unprivileged account is sufficient to achieve full confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise. No public exploit code or active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis, though the SSVC framework rates the technical impact as total.
Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
OS command injection in IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 permits a remote attacker holding high-privileged credentials to execute arbitrary operating system commands, with impact extending beyond the vulnerable component (scope change) to achieve full confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise. The CVSS 3.1 score of 8.4 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) reflects that while network-exploitable with low complexity, exploitation requires both elevated authentication and a user interaction trigger. No public exploit code has been identified and the vulnerability does not appear in the CISA KEV catalog at the time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Apply the patches documented in the IBM security advisory at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283858 for IBM AIX 7.2, AIX 7.3, and PowerVM VIOS 4.1. Patch availability is confirmed per vendor advisory, though exact fix version numbers were not specified in available input data - consult IBM Fix Central to identify the precise APARs or technology levels required. Where immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to the vulnerable service endpoint to explicitly authorized management IP ranges using AIX IPFilter host-based firewall rules or upstream network ACLs, reducing exposure to authenticated insider-level access only. Audit and rotate all low-privilege accounts that have access to the affected AIX and VIOS systems, since PR:L means any valid credential is a viable attack entry point. Additionally, enable AIX audit subsystem logging on sensitive syscalls to detect anomalous command execution from service accounts as an early warning measure.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 2 packages in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
CWE-78 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command) describes a class of flaws where user-supplied input containing shell metacharacters (semicolons, pipes, backticks, etc.) is passed to a system shell or execve-family call without sanitization, allowing injection of additional OS commands. IBM AIX is a commercial Unix operating system running exclusively on IBM Power architecture hardware, widely deployed in financial services, government, and critical infrastructure. IBM PowerVM VIOS (Virtual I/O Server) is the virtualization management layer on IBM Power systems that provides shared storage adapters and network resources to all hosted logical partitions (LPARs); its compromise is therefore systemic across a Power chassis. The CPE strings cpe:2.3:o:ibm:aix and cpe:2.3:a:ibm:vios confirm both product families are affected across multiple version ranges. The specific network-facing binary or service containing the flaw is not disclosed in publicly available data.
Know when Aix gets its next vulnerability
- Watch products and get an email when something new is published
- Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
No credit card · 7-day full trial
Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Network-accessible with low-privilege authentication sufficient; full C/I/A impact consistent with arbitrary OS command execution on host.
Primary rating from NVD.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
3DescriptionNVD
IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands due to improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command.
Executive ViewAI
IBM AIX 7.2/7.3 and PowerVM VIOS 4.1 systems are vulnerable to remote command execution through low-privilege user accounts, with no security patch currently available. Organizations using IBM Power Systems infrastructure face immediate risk of full system compromise if low-privilege credentials are stolen or compromised, directly threatening business continuity, data integrity, and regulatory compliance across affected enterprise environments.
Until vendor patch release: (1) Restrict shell access for low-privilege accounts where operationally feasible; (2) Implement command audit logging and SIEM alerting for abnormal command execution from low-privilege users; (3) Apply principle of least privilege to service and user accounts, restrict sudo permissions; (4) Deploy network segmentation isolating Power Systems from untrusted networks; (5) Enforce multi-factor authentication for all administrative access; (6) Conduct quarterly low-privilege account access reviews and disable unnecessary accounts.
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
OS command injection occurs when an application passes unsanitized user input directly into system shell commands.
The SSL protocol 3.0, as used in OpenSSL through 1.0.1i and other products, uses nondeterministic CBC padding, which mak
Multiple unspecified vulnerabilities in the InfiniBand subsystem in IBM AIX 6.1 and 7.1, and VIOS 2.2.2.2-FP-26 SP-02, a
IBM AIX 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and VIOS 3.1 could allow a non-privileged local user to exploit a vulnerability in the invscout c
IBM AIX contains an unspecified vulnerability that would allow a locally authenticated user to obtain root level privile
IBM AIX 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, and 7.2 contains an unspecified vulnerability that would allow a locally authenticated user to ob
IBM AIX 6.1, 7.1, and 7.2 could allow a local user to gain root privileges using a specially crafted command within the
lquerylv in cmdlvm in IBM AIX 5.3, 6.1, and 7.1 and VIOS 2.2.x allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted DBGCM
libodm.a in IBM AIX 5.3, 6.1, and 7.1 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporar
libodm.a in IBM AIX 6.1 and 7.1, and VIOS 2.2.x, allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on
OS command injection in IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and PowerVM VIOS 4.1 lets a remote, low-privileged authenticated attacker ru
OS command injection in IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and in IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 lets a remote, authenticated attacker execute ar
OS command injection in IBM AIX 7.2/7.3 and PowerVM VIOS 4.1 lets a remote authenticated attacker run arbitrary commands
EUVD-2026-63741
GHSA-3gv9-94hr-5c9w
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB