Description

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a local attacker to gain elevated privileges due to a heap-based buffer overflow.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "8.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-20T22:17:07.643Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-20T22:17:07.643Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability is classified as a heap-based buffer overflow affecting IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM VIOS.\nThe primary impact of this security flaw is privilege escalation, allowing a local threat actor to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges on the underlying operating system.\nThe affected products include IBM AIX versions 7.2 and 7.3, as well as IBM PowerVM VIOS version 4.1.\nThe risk implications are severe, as successful exploitation undermines the operating system's security boundaries, enabling standard local users to compromise root or administrative security domains.\nAttacker capabilities are restricted by the requirement for local access, meaning the adversary must already possess an authenticated interactive or programmatic interface to the vulnerable target system.\nExploitation requirements include local execution capability to interact with the vulnerable component, triggering the heap-based buffer overflow condition through crafted inputs or API calls.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability stems from a heap-based buffer overflow flaw located within internal memory management operations of the affected IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM VIOS operating system components.\nThe root cause is insufficient bounds checking and input validation when handling dynamically allocated memory buffers on the heap, allowing data to exceed the allocated boundary and overwrite adjacent heap metadata or critical application structures.\nAffected versions explicitly encompass IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1.\nAuthentication requirements dictate that the user must possess valid local credentials to execute binaries or interact with system interfaces that interface with the vulnerable heap allocation routines.\nPrivilege requirements are low prior to exploitation; a standard, unprivileged local user can initiate the attack sequence, provided they have execution access to the vulnerable system component.\nNetwork exposure is not directly applicable for initial access, as the attack vector is strictly local, though secondary remote access methods (such as SSH) may be utilized by the attacker to establish the local terminal session.\nThe attack flow begins when the local user supplies specially crafted input or invokes specific system calls that feed oversized data into a vulnerable heap-allocated buffer.\nAs the data overflows the designated heap buffer boundary, adjacent memory structures, function pointers, or control data structures are corrupted.\nBy meticulously engineering the payload, the attacker can manipulate the heap layout to overwrite critical execution pointers or management structures.\nWhen the application or operating system subsequently references the corrupted pointers or structures, execution flow is hijacked.\nPayload behavior involves executing arbitrary machine instructions supplied via the overflow data, operating within the security context of the process or kernel subsystem managing the allocation.\nThe post-exploitation impact culminates in full local privilege escalation, allowing the attacker to attain administrative or root privileges, compromise system integrity, access sensitive data, and install persistent backdoors."
}