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 integer overflow.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-20T22:17:14.187Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-20T22:17:14.187Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability involves an integer overflow condition present in IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM VIOS, which can be exploited by a remote attacker to induce a denial of service state. The flaw impacts system availability by disrupting normal operations when handling improperly bounded numerical calculations.\nThe affected products include IBM AIX versions 7.2 and 7.3, alongside IBM PowerVM VIOS version 4.1. The primary risk implication is the potential for unexpected system crashes or hangs, rendering critical logical partitions or the underlying virtualization layer unresponsive.\nExploitation of this vulnerability requires remote network capabilities where an attacker can supply maliciously crafted inputs that trigger the integer overflow within the vulnerable routines. Specific authentication and privilege requirements depend on the network exposure of the targeted service handling the malformed input. No direct execution of arbitrary code is indicated, with the impact strictly confined to service disruption and availability degradation.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability resides in an integer overflow flaw within the numerical processing logic of the affected software components in IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM VIOS. When the application or kernel subsystem processes inputs that exceed the maximum representable value for a specific integer data type, a wrap-around condition occurs.\nThis arithmetic anomaly results in improperly calculated buffer sizes, memory allocation lengths, or loop termination boundaries. Consequently, subsequent memory operations may rely on corrupted size metrics, leading to out-of-bounds reads, writes, or infinite loops that exhaust system resources or trigger exception faults resulting in a kernel panic or service termination.\nThe attack flow begins when a remote threat actor transmits specially crafted network packets or data structures designed to interact with the vulnerable service or protocol handler in IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3, or IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. Upon reception, the affected component parses the input and performs arithmetic operations without adequate bounds checking or overflow validation.\nAs the integer overflow triggers, the internal state of the process or kernel subsystem becomes invalid. If the overflow dictates memory allocation sizes, it may allocate insufficient buffer space, leading to memory corruption, or conversely, cause logic failures that disrupt execution flow. The ultimate payload behavior manifests as an abrupt termination of the targeted service or a complete system crash, fulfilling the denial of service condition.\nNetwork exposure is a factor depending on the specific daemon or interface exposed to the network that handles the untrusted input. Authentication and privilege requirements vary based on whether the vulnerable endpoint is accessible unauthenticated or requires restricted user access. However, the resulting impact remains focused on post-exploitation availability loss, requiring administrative intervention or a system reboot to restore normal operations."
}