Description

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a local attacker to execute arbitrary commands due to shell metacharacter injection.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T20:17:08.777Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T20:17:08.777Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A shell metacharacter injection vulnerability has been identified in IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM VIOS. This security flaw allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system.\nThe vulnerability affects IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3, as well as IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. The primary risk implication involves unauthorized execution of system commands, potentially leading to privilege escalation, data compromise, or full system integrity loss within the targeted logical partition or virtualization manager environment.\nExploitation of this vulnerability requires local access to the affected system. The attacker must possess specific local capabilities or privileges that allow interaction with vulnerable command interfaces or administrative scripts improperly sanitizing user-supplied input.\nThe root cause stems from insufficient validation and sanitization of input parameters, enabling the injection of malicious shell metacharacters into execution contexts. Defensive measures necessitate applying vendor-supplied software fixes and adhering to principle of least privilege regarding local user accounts.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability arises from improper neutralization of special elements used in operating system commands, specifically shell metacharacters, within vulnerable components of IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM VIOS.\nAffected software versions include IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. The flaw resides in internal functions or administrative scripts that accept local user input and subsequently pass that input to a underlying shell environment for execution without adequate escaping or sanitization.\nAuthentication and privilege requirements involve local access to the target system. An attacker must be authenticated locally with sufficient privileges to invoke the vulnerable command-line interfaces, management utilities, or scripts susceptible to parameter injection.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the local attacker identifies a vulnerable interface or utility that processes user-supplied parameters insecurely. Second, the attacker crafts a malicious input string containing shell metacharacters (such as semicolons, pipe symbols, backticks, or ampersands) combined with arbitrary system commands. Third, the application or script appends or incorporates this malicious string directly into a command execution vector, such as a system() call or shell invocation.\nBecause the input is not properly sanitized, the underlying shell interprets the injected metacharacters as command separators or control operators rather than literal data. Consequently, the operating system executes the attacker-supplied payload alongside or instead of the intended administrative operation.\nPost-exploitation impact includes arbitrary command execution with the security context of the vulnerable process or user invoking the script. Depending on the execution context, this may allow local attackers to escalate privileges, modify critical system configurations, access sensitive data, or install persistent unauthorized components on IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3, or IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 environments."
}