# CVE-2021-38995: Denial of service in AIX

> A local non-privileged user can exploit an AIX kernel vulnerability to cause a denial of service, impacting system availability.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.2 (`CVSS:3.0/I:N/UI:N/C:N/A:H/AV:L/AC:L/S:U/PR:N/RL:O/RC:C/E:U`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 24 Feb 2022
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-g3fm-m5g5-phhp

## What is CVE-2021-38995?

CVE-2021-38995 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Ibm Aix, published on 24 Feb 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 non-privileged local user to exploit a vulnerability in the AIX kernel to cause a denial of service. IBM X-Force ID: 213073.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-38995?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Ibm Aix, Ibm Vios.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-38995?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-38995 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-38995 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-38995 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Ibm Aix

- [CVE-2025-36250](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-36250/): AIX Code Execution (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2024-56346](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-56346/): IBM AIX command execution (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2010-3187](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-3187/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2009-3699](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3699/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2009-3517](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3517/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-38995 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-38995 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Ibm Aix, published on 24 Feb 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-38995 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ibm Aix. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38995/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38995/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-38995
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-38995
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-38995

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38995/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.