Power System Out-of-bounds Read
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-17042 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | ibm |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-08-19 20:17:12 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-08-25 13:14:08 UTC |
| Description | IBM Power Systems Firmware FW950.00 through FW950.H2, OP940.00 through OP940.a1 (Power9), and OP940.00 - OP940.81 (Power HMC) is affected by a vulnerability in host firmware NVRAM parsing. An attacker with root access to a guest partition on an OpenPOWER system can write a specially crafted NVRAM image, causing the host firmware boot stage to crash with possible memory corruption. This condition persists until operator intervention — clearing NVRAM via the service processor — to restore normal operation. This vulnerability only affects OpenPOWER systems; systems running PowerVM are not affected. Successful exploitation results in an integrity and availability impact to the managed system. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.3 HIGH from [email protected]
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H
EPSS: 0.001050000 probability, percentile 0.011760000 (date 2026-08-25)
Problem Types: CWE-125 | CWE-125 CWE-125 Out-of-bounds Read
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Primary | 7.3 | HIGH | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H |
| 3.1 | CNA | CVSS | 7.3 | HIGH | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H |
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H
NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | IBM | Power Systems Firmware | affected FW950.00 FW950.H2 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | IBM | Power Systems Firmware | affected OP940.00 OP940.a1 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | IBM | Power Systems Firmware | affected OP940.00 OP940.81 semver | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283240 | [email protected] | www.ibm.com | Vendor Advisory |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Additional Advisory Data
Solutions
CNA: Customers with the products below should install FW950.H3(950_230) or newer to remediate this vulnerability. Power 9 * IBM Power System S922 (9009-22G) * IBM Power System H922 (9223-22S) * IBM Power System S914 (9009-41G) * IBM Power System S924 (9009-42G) * IBM Power System H924 (9223-42S) * IBM Power System E950 (9040-MR9) * IBM Power System E980 (9080-M9S) Customers with the products below should install OP940.a2 or newer to remediate this vulnerability. Power 9 * IBM Power System AC922 (8335-GTH, 8335-GTX) Customers with the products below should install OP940.82 or newer to remediate this vulnerability. Power Hardware Management Console * IBM Power Hardware Management Console (7063-CR2) The images mentioned above can be located at IBM Fix Central : https://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/ https://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/