CVE-2026-17121

Analyzed Analyzed - Analysis Complete

Denial of Service in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS

Publication date: 2026-08-20

Last updated on: 2026-08-24

Assigner: IBM Corporation

Description

IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service due to uncontrolled recursion.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

Probability:
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Meta Information

Published

2026-08-20

Last Modified

2026-08-24

Generated

2026-09-10

AI Q&A

2026-08-21

EPSS Evaluated

2026-09-07

NVD

CVE-2026-17121

EUVD

EUVD-2026-63646

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
ibm	vios	From 4.1.0 (inc) to 4.1.0.50 (exc)
ibm	vios	From 4.1.1.0 (inc) to 4.1.1.30 (exc)
ibm	vios	From 4.1.2.0 (inc) to 4.1.2.20 (exc)
ibm	aix	From 7.2.5 (inc) to 7.2.5.212 (inc)
ibm	aix	From 7.3.2 (inc) to 7.3.2.5 (inc)
ibm	aix	From 7.3.3 (inc) to 7.3.3.2 (inc)
ibm	aix	From 7.3.4 (inc) to 7.3.4.1 (inc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-674	The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
CWE-400	The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability in IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3, and IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1 allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service through uncontrolled recursion. This means an attacker could send specially crafted requests that trigger excessive recursive operations, overwhelming the system and making it unresponsive.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves uncontrolled recursion leading to denial of service in IBM AIX and PowerVM VIOS. Detection requires monitoring for unusual recursion patterns or service disruptions in network traffic or system logs. Check for repeated requests or stack overflow errors in AIX/PowerVM logs. Use commands like 'netstat -an' to monitor network connections and 'errpt' to review system errors. If recursion is suspected, analyze process stacks with 'ps -ef' and 'svmon' for memory usage anomalies.

Impact Analysis

If exploited, this vulnerability could lead to system crashes or significant slowdowns, disrupting services and operations. It may require system restarts or patches to restore normal functionality, potentially causing downtime and data access issues.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could lead to a denial of service due to uncontrolled recursion, which may disrupt system availability. This could impact compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA that require maintaining data availability and access.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply IBM-provided patches or updates for AIX 7.2, 7.3, and PowerVM VIOS 4.1 to address the uncontrolled recursion issue. Monitor IBM advisories for specific fixes and implement network-level protections to limit remote access until patches are applied.

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