CVE-2026-16656
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Elevated risk51th percentile - higher than 51% of all known CVEs
Summary
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to gain root privileges due to improper authentication.
Risk Assessment
A remote attacker can gain full root privileges, leading to complete system compromise and potentially the entire infrastructure.
Recommendation
Immediately apply security patches from IBM. Implement additional authentication mechanisms and restrict access to systems.
Other vulnerabilities in IBM AIX
See all- CVE-2016-3053High
IBM AIX contains an unspecified vulnerability that allows a locally authenticated user to obtain root level privileges.
- CVE-2026-18835Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands due to improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command.
- CVE-2026-17422Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a local attacker to execute arbitrary code due to a buffer overflow.
- CVE-2026-17160Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code due to an integer overflow during size computation.
- CVE-2026-17157Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code due to a stack buffer overflow.
- CVE-2026-17152Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code due to a buffer overflow.
- CVE-2026-17145Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code due to improper privilege management.
- CVE-2026-17142Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands due to improper authentication.
- CVE-2026-17141Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code due to a buffer overflow.
- CVE-2026-17136Critical
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code due to a format string vulnerability.
Original NVD description (English source)
IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to gain root privileges due to improper authentication.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS