CVE-2026-17042: power system e950 Out-of-bounds Read

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.

Is your site exposed to CVE-2026-17042?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

7.3

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0011

Probability of exploitation

0.01%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-125 Out-of-bounds Read

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Versions
ibm	power_system_s922_\(9009-22g\)_firmware	fw950.00 — fw950.h3
ibm	power_system_s922_\(9009-22g\)	All
ibm	power_system_h922_\(9223-22s\)_firmware	fw950.00 — fw950.h3
ibm	power_system_h922_\(9223-22s\)	All
ibm	power_system_s914_\(9009-41g\)_firmware	fw950.00 — fw950.h3
ibm	power_system_s914_\(9009-41g\)	All
ibm	power_system_s924_\(9009-42g\)_firmware	fw950.00 — fw950.h3
ibm	power_system_s924_\(9009-42g\)	All
ibm	power_system_h924_\(9223-42s\)_firmware	fw950.00 — fw950.h3
ibm	power_system_h924_\(9223-42s\)	All
ibm	power_system_e950_\(9040-mr9\)_firmware	fw950.00 — fw950.h3
ibm	power_system_e950_\(9040-mr9\)	All
ibm	power_system_e980_\(9080-m9s\)_firmware	fw950.00 — fw950.h3
ibm	power_system_e980_\(9080-m9s\)	All
ibm	power_system_ac922_\(8335-gth\)_firmware	op940 — op940.a2
ibm	power_system_ac922_\(8335-gth\)	All
ibm	power_system_ac922_\(8335-gtx\)_firmware	op940 — op940.a2
ibm	power_system_ac922_\(8335-gtx\)	All
ibm	power_hardware_management_console_\(7063-cr2\)_firmware	op940 — op940.82
ibm	power_hardware_management_console_\(7063-cr2\)	All

References

Advisories & Patches

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283240

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-17042? +

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. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.3 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-17042? +

CVE-2026-17042 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.3 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0011, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

What products are affected by CVE-2026-17042? +

CVE-2026-17042 affects products from ibm, specifically: power_hardware_management_console_\(7063-cr2\), power_hardware_management_console_\(7063-cr2\)_firmware, power_system_ac922_\(8335-gth\), power_system_ac922_\(8335-gth\)_firmware, power_system_ac922_\(8335-gtx\), power_system_ac922_\(8335-gtx\)_firmware, power_system_e950_\(9040-mr9\), power_system_e950_\(9040-mr9\)_firmware, power_system_e980_\(9080-m9s\), power_system_e980_\(9080-m9s\)_firmware, power_system_h922_\(9223-22s\), power_system_h922_\(9223-22s\)_firmware, power_system_h924_\(9223-42s\), power_system_h924_\(9223-42s\)_firmware, power_system_s914_\(9009-41g\), power_system_s914_\(9009-41g\)_firmware, power_system_s922_\(9009-22g\), power_system_s922_\(9009-22g\)_firmware, power_system_s924_\(9009-42g\), power_system_s924_\(9009-42g\)_firmware. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-17042? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-29013

libcoap contains out-of-bounds read vulnerabilities in OSCORE Appendix B.2 CBOR unwrap handling where get_byte_inc() in src/oscore/oscore_cbor.c relies solely on assert() …

CVE-2026-53566

Out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Citrix Citrix Secure Access Client for Windows. This issue affects Citrix Secure Access Client for Windows: …

CVE-2026-3508

An Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability in the IOCTL handler in ASUS System Control Interface allows a local user to cause system …

CVE-2025-48520

An improper input validation vulnerability within the AMD Platform Management Framework (PMF) driver can allow a local attacker to read …

CVE-2026-3894

Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability in RTI Connext Professional (Core Libraries) allows Overread Buffers.This issue affects Connext Professional: from 7.4.0 before 7.7.0, …

CVE-2025-4098

Horner Automation Cscape version 10.0 (10.0.415.2) SP1 is vulnerable to an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that could allow an attacker to …

CVE-2026-17042