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CRITICAL

Vulnerabilities in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS

Published Aug 20, 2026

Description

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a local attacker to execute arbitrary code due to a buffer overflow.

Affected products

Remediation

Vendor solution

A.  APARS

IBM has assigned the following APARs to this problem:

AIX LevelAPARAvailability  SPKEY7.2.5IJ5956608/14/2026SP13key_w_apar7.3.2IJ5956508/14/2026SP05key_w_apar7.3.3IJ5956408/14/2026SP03key_w_apar7.3.4IJ59563 08/14/2026SP02key_w_apar

VIOS LevelAPARAvailability SPKEY4.1.0IJ5956508/14/20264.1.0.50key_w_apar4.1.1IJ5956408/14/20264.1.1.30key_w_apar4.1.2IJ5956308/14/20264.1.2.20key_w_apar

B.  FIXES

IBM strongly recommends addressing the vulnerability now.

 AIX and VIOS fixes are available and can be downloaded from Fix Central: https://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral

 An LPAR reboot is required to complete the SP/FP update. On AIX, Live Update can be used to avoid a reboot.

 IBM has assigned the following AIX Service Packs (SPs) and VIOS Fix Packs (FPs) as the remediation levels for the published vulnerabilities.

AIX Level Service PackAIX 7.3 TL04SP2AIX 7.3 TL03SP3AIX 7.3 TL02SP5AIX 7.2 TL05 SP13

PowerVM VIOS LevelFix PackVIOS 4.1.2 4.1.2.20VIOS 4.1.1 4.1.1.30VIOS 4.1.0  4.1.0.50

Note: These SPs/FPs are cumulative and include fixes for all previously published AIX/VIOS security vulnerabilities. They can be applied on top of any earlier affected level of the TL .

Note: To apply these patches using nimsh secure, special steps must be taken as the protocol between master and client is updated to be more secure. Please read this article: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283157

Note: For VIOS 4.1.0 and VIOS 4.1.1, additional steps are required to migrate to the latest Postgres15 after applying the 4.1.1.30 or 4.1.0.50 FPs above. Instructions to do that can be found here:                  

          4.1.0.50 post-update instructions: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283819           4.1.1.30 post-update instructions: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283823

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Sources
CVE.org / MITRE
Status PUBLISHED
Assigner ibm
Published Aug 20, 2026
Updated Aug 22, 2026
Reserved Jul 25, 2026
CISA Vulnrichment
Updated Aug 21, 2026
NVD
Status Analyzed
Modified Aug 25, 2026
Red Hat
Severity n/a
Public date n/a