Description

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 uncontrolled resource consumption.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T15:16:56.887Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T15:16:56.887Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This security assessment analyzes a vulnerability affecting IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. The flaw involves uncontrolled resource consumption that can be leveraged by a remote adversary to induce a denial of service condition on target systems.\nThe vulnerability type is classified as resource management deficiency leading to uncontrolled resource allocation. The primary operational impact is service degradation or complete system unavailability, which compromises the availability security triad tenet for critical enterprise infrastructure.\nAffected systems encompass specific iterations of the IBM AIX operating system and the PowerVM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) platform. The risk implications are severe for environments relying on high availability, as unexpected resource exhaustion can disrupt mission-critical virtualization and operating system services.\nAn attacker must possess network connectivity to target endpoints to facilitate exploitation. The threat actor capability required involves the ability to transmit crafted network traffic or requests designed to trigger the underlying resource allocation flaw without necessarily requiring prior authentication, depending on the network exposure of the vulnerable component.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability stems from improper resource management within specific daemons or kernel components of IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. Specifically, the vulnerable component fails to properly bound, rate-limit, or release resources allocated in response to incoming network traffic or remote requests.\nThe root cause is rooted in uncontrolled resource consumption, where sustained or maliciously crafted input forces the system to continuously allocate memory, process threads, or other finite operating system resources without implementing appropriate thresholds or garbage collection mechanisms.\nExploitation occurs when a remote attacker transmits specifically crafted network payloads or a high volume of requests targeting the vulnerable service or protocol handler. Because the affected software lacks adequate validation and resource capping, processing these inputs triggers excessive resource allocation.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the attacker identifies the network exposure of the vulnerable service running on IBM AIX or PowerVM VIOS. Second, the attacker transmits the malicious payload across the network. Third, the targeted component consumes system resources proportionally to the input without releasing them upon completion or failure. Finally, this continuous consumption leads to resource exhaustion, starving legitimate processes and precipitating a denial of service condition.\nAffected versions explicitly include IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. Authentication and privilege requirements depend on the specific network service exposed, though remote exploitation vectors generally allow unauthenticated or low-privileged actors to initiate the resource consumption sequence.\nThe payload behavior is characterized by the silent or overt consumption of system memory, CPU cycles, or descriptor tables. The post-exploitation impact is strictly destructive to availability, resulting in system hangs, kernel panics, or service crashes requiring administrative intervention or system reboots to restore normal operational state."
}