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 an out-of-bounds write.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "4.3",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T20:17:09.567Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T20:17:09.567Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability involves an out-of-bounds write flaw affecting IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. The weakness allows a remote attacker to induce a denial of service condition on targeted systems.\nThe primary impact of successful exploitation is system instability, service disruption, or potential system crashes, severely affecting availability. The risk implication is significant for enterprise environments relying on these operating systems and virtualization platforms for mission-critical workloads.\nThe attacker capabilities include remote execution vectors to trigger the out-of-bounds write condition without requiring prior authentication or elevated privileges, depending on network exposure of the vulnerable service.\nExploitation requirements are dictated by the presence of the vulnerable component handling input or memory operations improperly, leading to memory corruption.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability stems from a memory management flaw specifically characterized as an out-of-bounds write. This software defect occurs when the affected application or kernel component writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the allocated buffer.\nThe vulnerable components reside within the networking stack or system daemons of IBM AIX versions 7.2 and 7.3, as well as IBM PowerVM VIOS version 4.1. The root cause is improper bounds checking on input data processed by the affected software module.\nAttack flow begins with a remote attacker transmitting a maliciously crafted payload across the network to the target system. Upon receipt, the vulnerable component processes the input without adequately verifying its length relative to the destination memory buffer size.\nAs the routine attempts to write the processed data, it overruns the boundaries of the allocated memory structure, corrupting adjacent heap or stack memory regions. This memory corruption disrupts critical system data structures or execution flows.\nAuthentication and privilege requirements are minimal for the remote vector, as the flaw can be triggered externally. The network exposure is determined by the accessibility of the vulnerable service interface exposed by AIX or VIOS.\nThe post-exploitation impact is primarily focused on denial of service, manifesting as a kernel panic, system crash, or abrupt termination of essential system services, rendering the host unavailable until administrative intervention occurs."
}