IBM AIX/PowerVM VIOS privileges management

CVSS Meta Temp Score
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Current Exploit Price (≈)
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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-$25k0.47+

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, was found in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS. This affects an unknown function. Such manipulation leads to privileges management. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-16991. Local access is required to approach this attack. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS (affected version not known) and classified as very critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality. 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 gain elevated privileges due to improper handling of symbolic links.

The advisory is available at ibm.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-16991 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 08/21/2026). This vulnerability is assigned to T1068 by the MITRE ATT&CK project.

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

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

Vendor

Name

License

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: 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: 🔒

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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 VulDB entry created
08/21/2026 +0 days Advisory disclosed
08/21/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: ibm.com

Advisory: ibm.com
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-16991 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-16991
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-393962

Entryinfo

Created: 08/21/2026 00:46
Changes: 08/21/2026 00:46 (61)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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