Description

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information and cause a denial of service due to an out-of-bounds read.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.7",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-20T22:17:15.767Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-20T22:17:15.767Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability represents an out-of-bounds read security flaw affecting IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. The flaw introduces significant security risks, primarily allowing a remote attacker to compromise system confidentiality and availability. Specifically, successful exploitation enables unauthorized retrieval of sensitive information from memory and induces a denial of service condition against the affected host. The vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking within vulnerable components of the operating system and hypervisor layers. Remote threat actors with network accessibility can leverage this flaw without requiring complex preconditions or user interaction, depending on the network exposure of the vulnerable services. The operational impact includes potential data leakage of sensitive memory contents and operational disruption of critical virtualization and operating system services. Organizations utilizing the affected IBM platforms face moderate to high risk exposure, necessitating prompt identification and remediation through official vendor channels.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is classified as an out-of-bounds read, occurring when software reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. In the context of IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1, this memory safety violation typically manifests in network-facing daemons, system calls, or hypervisor communication channels responsible for parsing incoming protocol packets or data structures. The root cause lies in insufficient validation of index or length parameters supplied within network payloads or inter-process communication requests before performing memory read operations. During a typical attack flow, a remote unauthenticated attacker crafts a specialized payload designed to manipulate internal size or offset counters processed by the vulnerable component. Upon transmission of this payload across the network to the targeted service, the affected application or kernel subsystem executes a read operation using the tainted offset. This action reads adjacent memory regions beyond the allocated buffer boundaries. The immediate payload behavior involves capturing the contents of these adjacent memory addresses, which may contain sensitive kernel data, cryptographic material, or session information. If the out-of-bounds read encounters unmapped memory addresses or triggers exception handling routines that destabilize the runtime environment, it results in an application crash or system panic, thereby causing a denial of service. The vulnerability requires network exposure of the affected service, but typically does not require local authentication or elevated privileges, lowering the barrier for remote exploitation. Post-exploitation impact encompasses the continuous extraction of sensitive kernel or process memory to facilitate further attacks, alongside repeated service interruptions impacting overall system availability."
}