VDB-393899 · CVE-2026-16943 · GCVE-0-2026-16943

IBM AIX/PowerVM VIOS buffer overflow

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.
8.2	$5k-$25k	0.34-

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as very critical has been detected in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality. The manipulation leads to buffer overflow. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-16943. An attack has to be approached locally. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS (affected version not known) and classified as very critical. This issue affects some unknown functionality. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-120. The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

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 heap-based buffer overflow.

It is possible to read the advisory at ibm.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-16943 since 07/24/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. Attacking locally is a requirement. Additional levels of successful authentication are needed for exploitation. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/20/2026).

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

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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: 8.2
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 8.2

VulDB Base Score: 8.2
VulDB Temp Score: 8.2
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CNA Base Score: 8.2
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: Buffer overflow
CWE: CWE-120 / CWE-119
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
08/20/2026 +27 days Advisory disclosed
08/20/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
08/20/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: ibm.com

Advisory: ibm.com
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-16943 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-16943
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-393899

Entryinfo

Created: 08/20/2026 23:56
Changes: 08/20/2026 23:56 (61)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103