IBM AIX/PowerVM VIOS 4.1/7.2/7.3 heap-based 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.
8.3$5k-$25k1.02-

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as very critical has been identified in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS 4.1/7.2/7.3. This vulnerability affects unknown code. Such manipulation leads to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-16946. Local access is required to approach this attack. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS 4.1/7.2/7.3. It has been rated as very critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown code block. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). 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 gain elevated privileges due to a heap buffer overflow.

The advisory is available at ibm.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-16946 since 07/24/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. Local access is required to approach this attack. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of 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.

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Productinfo

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Vendor

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Version

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Website

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

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

Exploitinginfo

Class: Heap-based overflow
CWE: CWE-122 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

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

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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-2026-16946 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-16946
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-393902

Entryinfo

Created: 08/20/2026 23:57
Changes: 08/20/2026 23:57 (62)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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