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": "2026-08-19T20:17:03.733Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T20:17:03.733Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A denial of service vulnerability has been identified in IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3, as well as IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. This security defect arises from uncontrolled resource consumption within the affected operating system and virtualization environments, potentially allowing a remote attacker to exhaust critical system resources.\nThe primary impact of this vulnerability is the disruption of system availability, which can lead to service degradation or complete system unresponsiveness. Threat actors with remote access capabilities can trigger this condition without requiring elevated privileges or complex interaction, depending on the network exposure of the target environment.\nOrganizations utilizing the specified versions of IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM VIOS face availability risks if exposed to untrusted networks. Successful exploitation requires no specialized authentication or interaction, heightening the risk profile for systems directly accessible from external perimeters.\nMitigation requires careful evaluation of available vendor updates and adherence to standard system hardening practices designed to limit resource exhaustion and mitigate remote denial of service vectors.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is characterized by improper resource allocation and management, leading to uncontrolled resource consumption within IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. The root cause lies in the vulnerable component's failure to adequately bound, throttle, or release resources when subjected to specific network or operational inputs.\nExploitation of this vulnerability occurs remotely over the network. A remote attacker can craft and transmit specific requests or data streams designed to continuously consume system resources, such as memory, CPU cycles, or descriptor tables, without proper reclamation.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the attacker identifies a reachable network service or interface running on the vulnerable IBM AIX or IBM PowerVM VIOS instance. Second, the attacker transmits a series of malicious payloads that force the underlying kernel or daemon to allocate resources continuously. Third, due to the lack of adequate rate limiting or resource quotas, the system exhausts its available resource pool. Finally, this exhaustion precipitates a denial of service condition, rendering the affected system incapable of processing legitimate transactions or management commands.\nThe vulnerable components are integral parts of the core operating system and virtualization management stack in IBM AIX versions 7.2 and 7.3, alongside IBM PowerVM VIOS version 4.1. The vulnerability can be exploited without prior authentication and does not require specific user privileges, lowering the barrier for potential threat actors.\nThe post-exploitation impact is strictly confined to availability degradation, leading to service outages that typically require administrative intervention, such as a system reboot or manual service restart, to restore normal operational state."
}