CVE-2021-38955 Denial of service in AIX

Medium 4.4 Published 1 Mar 2022 Updated 16 Sep 2024

A local user with elevated privileges can cause a denial of service in IBM AIX and VIOS via a file creation vulnerability in audit commands.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: An administrator
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2021-38955?

CVE-2021-38955 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Ibm Aix, published on 1 Mar 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

IBM AIX 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and VIOS 3.1 could allow a local user with elevated privileges to cause a denial of service due to a file creation vulnerability in the audit commands. IBM X-Force ID: 211825.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-38955?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Ibm Aix, Ibm Vios.

How do I fix CVE-2021-38955?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-38955 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2021-38955 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-38955 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Ibm Aix vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-2pmc-64pj-g4gv.