VDB-393368 · CVE-2026-16874 · GCVE-0-2026-16874

IBM AIX/PowerVM VIOS privileges management

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
8.3	$5k-$25k	0.86

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as very critical has been found in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS. This affects an unknown function. Such manipulation leads to privileges management. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2026-16874. The attack must be carried out locally. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS (the affected version unknown) and classified as very critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown part. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a local attacker to obtain root privileges due to improper enforcement of RBAC authentication roles.

The advisory is shared for download at ibm.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-16874 since 07/24/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $5k-$25k (estimation calculated on 08/19/2026). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1068.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Productinfo

Type

Operating System

Vendor

Name

License

commercial

Website

Vendor: https://www.ibm.com/

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 8.3
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 8.3

VulDB Base Score: 8.8
VulDB Temp Score: 8.8
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CNA Base Score: 7.8
CNA Vector (ibm): 🔒

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Privileges management
CWE: CWE-269 / CWE-266
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: no mitigation known
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Timelineinfo

07/24/2026 CVE reserved
08/19/2026 +26 days Advisory disclosed
08/19/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
08/19/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: ibm.com

Advisory: ibm.com
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-16874 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-16874
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-393368

Entryinfo

Created: 08/19/2026 22:19
Changes: 08/19/2026 22:19 (61)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103