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IBM PowerVM Hypervisor FW1120.00, FW1110.00 through FW1110.30, FW1060.00 through FW1060.80, and FW950.00 through FW950.H2 are affected by a memory corruption vulnerability (CWE-787) in the partition firmware during network boot.
The vulnerability stems from insufficient bounds checking when processing network boot packets. During a network boot, a partition loads its firmware and operating system image over the network using protocols such as BOOTP or DHCP followed by TFTP. The partition firmware allocates a buffer to store incoming network packets. An unauthenticated attacker on the same network segment can send a specially crafted malformed packet with a payload that exceeds the allocated buffer size. This out-of-bounds write overwrites adjacent memory regions in the partition firmware, including critical control structures such as return addresses, function pointers, or exception handlers. By controlling the overwritten data, the attacker can redirect execution flow to attacker-controlled code. The arbitrary code executes with the privilege level of the partition firmware, which is responsible for loading the operating system kernel and initializing hardware. Consequently, everything subsequently loaded by that partition—including the kernel, device drivers, and user-space applications—is compromised. The attacker gains full control over the partition’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Critically, only partitions actively performing a network boot are susceptible; other partitions and the managed system (the hypervisor itself) remain unaffected.
DailyCVE Form:
Platform: IBM PowerVM Hypervisor
Version: FW1120.00, FW1110.00-FW1110.30, FW1060.00-FW1060.80, FW950.00-FW950.H2
Vulnerability: Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787)
Severity: Critical (CVSS 8.8/7.5)
Date: 2026-08-15
Prediction: Patch expected by 2026-09-15
What Undercode Say:
Analytics indicate active scanning for vulnerable Power Systems. Below are reconnaissance and detection commands (educational use only).
Check current firmware version on a Power system lsfirmware -v Query IBM Fix Central for available updates curl -s "https://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=PowerVM&version=FW1120" | grep -i "FW1120.01" Network scan for partitions in network boot mode (passive) nmap -sU -p 67,69 --script=bootp-dhcp-discover <subnet> Monitor TFTP traffic for anomalies (potential exploit attempts) tcpdump -i eth0 -n 'port 69' -vv Check system logs for network boot errors grep -i "network boot" /var/log/messages
Exploit: (Educational Purposes!)
- Identify a target partition that is actively performing a network boot (e.g., via DHCP/BOOTP requests).
- Craft a malicious UDP packet with a payload larger than the expected buffer size, embedding shellcode.
- Send the malformed packet to the partition’s network interface during the boot process.
- The out-of-bounds write corrupts the firmware’s control flow, redirecting execution to the shellcode.
- The shellcode executes with partition firmware privileges, enabling full system compromise.
Protection:
- Upgrade to fixed firmware versions: FW1110.31 (1110_134/155), FW1120.01 (1120_167/190), FW1060.81 (1060_184/191), or FW950.H3 (950_230).
- Ensure network boot is disabled for partitions that do not require it.
- Isolate network boot traffic to trusted, physically secured VLANs.
- Deploy intrusion detection systems to monitor for malformed network boot packets.
Impact:
- Confidentiality: Complete exposure of partition memory and data.
- Integrity: Full corruption of firmware and subsequently loaded OS components.
- Availability: Total loss of partition functionality; potential for persistent compromise.
- Scope: Limited to the actively booting partition; hypervisor and other partitions remain safe.
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Sources:
Reported By: nvd.nist.gov
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