# CVE-2026-96261: IBM Power Systems Firmware Buffer Overflow

> Authenticated attackers can cause host firmware crashes and potential memory corruption via crafted configuration data, impacting system integrity and availability.

- **Severity:** High 7.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 12 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4mp3-cxqr-qxhw

## What is CVE-2026-96261?

CVE-2026-96261 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in IBM PowerVM Hypervisor, published on 12 Oct 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM Power Systems Firmware FW1060.00 through FW1060.81 is affected by a vulnerability in host firmware configuration parsing. An attacker with authenticated service-level access to the service processor can write specially crafted configuration data, causing the host firmware boot stack to crash with possible memory corruption during system initialisation, resulting in an integrity and availability impact to the managed system.

Weakness: CWE-121 (Stack-based Buffer Overflow)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-96261?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-96261?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-96261 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-96261 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96261 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-96261 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-96261 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in IBM PowerVM Hypervisor, published on 12 Oct 2026. 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-2026-96261 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: IBM PowerVM Hypervisor. 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-2026-96261/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-96261/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-96261
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96261
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-96261

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-96261/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.