CVE-2026-96266 IBM Power Systems Firmware Buffer Overflow
Authenticated attackers can exploit a buffer overflow in IBM Power Systems firmware to compromise the hypervisor and host boot stack.
- 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-2026-96266?
CVE-2026-96266 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 FSP can write specially crafted configuration data to cause memory corruption in the host firmware boot stage during system IPL, compromising the host firmware boot stack and the hypervisor subsequently loaded by it. Successful exploitation results in a confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact to the managed system.
Weakness: CWE-121
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-96266?
How do I fix CVE-2026-96266?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-96266 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-96266 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96266 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-cxch-p56r-27hr.