CVE-2026-16140 OpenBMC IPMI Privilege Escalation via Retargeted RAKP 1
Attackers can escalate privileges in OpenBMC IPMI sessions by replacing authorization context without re-authentication, affecting downstream vendors like NVIDIA and H3C.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-16140?
CVE-2026-16140 is a high-severity vulnerability in OpenBMC phosphor-net-ipmid, published on 15 Sep 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
OpenBMC's IPMI implementation, phosphor-net-ipmid, is vulnerable to a logic flaw where the authorization context of an existing session can be replaced with a target account while still maintaining the original integrity and encryption keys. Several downstream vendors implement phosphor-net-ipmid as their IPMI stack, such as NVIDIA and H3C. This issue effectively allows for privilege escalation without re-authentication.
Weakness: CWE-863
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-16140?
How do I fix CVE-2026-16140?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-16140 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-16140 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-16140 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-m238-h73w-r4f2.