Description

IBM i 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, and 7.3 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to gain elevated privileges due to improper validation of a client-supplied profile name.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "8.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-12T20:17:39.130Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-12T20:17:39.130Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A privilege escalation vulnerability affects IBM i versions 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, and 7.3, potentially allowing a remote authenticated attacker to attain elevated privileges within the operating system environment. The vulnerability stems from improper validation mechanisms applied to a client-supplied profile name during processing. Successful exploitation of this security flaw grants unauthorized capability enhancement, enabling malicious actors to bypass standard access controls and execute administrative functions reserved for privileged security contexts. The risk implications are severe, as unauthorized privilege escalation subverts the foundational security model of the operating system, threatening the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of system resources and sensitive enterprise data. Exploitation requires the attacker to possess prior authentication to the target system, indicating an insider threat vector or an adversary who has successfully compromised low-privileged credentials. Remediation requires applying the appropriate vendor-supplied patches and security advisories specifically designated for the affected IBM i versions to enforce strict input sanitization and cryptographic or logical profile validation controls.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides within the identity and profile management subsystem of IBM i versions 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, and 7.3, specifically in the component responsible for processing and validating client-supplied profile names. The fundamental root cause is an insufficiency in input validation and boundary enforcement where user-supplied profile parameters are accepted and parsed without adequate verification against authorized session contexts or security descriptors. An authenticated remote attacker leverages this flaw by crafting malicious input payloads containing specifically manipulated profile identifiers during client-server interaction or session initialization routines. Because the vulnerable component fails to properly validate the authenticity and authorization of the supplied profile name against the authenticated user's actual permissions, the system erroneously associates the session or execution context with the targeted administrative profile. The attack flow initiates when the remote user, possessing standard low-privileged authentication credentials, transmits the crafted profile-switching or profile-resolution request over the network protocol utilized by the subsystem. Upon receiving the payload, the vulnerable processing logic accepts the unverified profile name and binds the active process thread or session token to the elevated security context of the specified profile. Consequently, post-exploitation impact includes the total compromise of the affected system instance, as the attacker inherits full administrative capabilities, enabling them to read restricted files, modify system configurations, execute arbitrary privileged commands, and deploy persistence mechanisms across the operating system environment."
}