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CVE Record

CVE-2019-6155: A potential vulnerability was found in an SMI handler in various BIOS versions of certain legacy IBM System...

A potential vulnerability was found in an SMI handler in various BIOS versions of certain legacy IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter systems that could lead to denial of service.

MediumCVSS 4.1Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2019-6155 is a BIOS-level issue in certain legacy IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter systems. It could let a highly privileged local actor trigger a denial of service. The business risk is mainly outage risk on older server hardware, not data theft or remote compromise based on the provided sources.

Executive priority

Handle through the legacy infrastructure risk queue. It is not remote code execution, but BIOS-level denial of service on aging servers can still affect critical workloads if those platforms remain in production.

Technical view

The issue is described as a potential SMI handler vulnerability in various BIOS versions for legacy IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter systems. CVSS 3.0 is 4.1 with AV:L, AC:H, PR:H, UI:N, and availability impact only. The source bundle provides no CWE or detailed affected BIOS version list.

Likely exposure

Organizations still operating legacy IBM System x or IBM BladeCenter servers with affected BIOS versions. Exposure is lower if systems are retired, vendor-remediated, or tightly controlled because exploitation requires local, high-privileged access.

Exploitation context

No KEV listing and no cited source in the bundle reports active exploitation. The CVSS vector indicates local access, high attack complexity, and high privileges are required, with denial of service as the impact.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited. The bundle identifies an SMI handler issue, availability-only impact, legacy IBM server BIOS scope, and Lenovo advisory reference. It does not provide exploit details, CWE mapping, exact BIOS versions, or specific remediation text.

Mitigation direction

  • Review Lenovo advisory LEN-25165 for affected BIOS versions and remediation guidance.
  • Inventory IBM System x and BladeCenter hardware still in service.
  • Apply vendor-recommended BIOS updates or mitigations where applicable.
  • Restrict local privileged access to affected servers.
  • Plan lifecycle replacement for unsupported legacy systems.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm whether IBM System x or BladeCenter systems exist in the environment.
  • Record each server model and BIOS version.
  • Compare inventory against the Lenovo advisory’s affected product guidance.
  • Verify vendor-recommended remediation status for each affected host.
  • Check operational monitoring for unexplained firmware-level crashes or outages.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
3

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

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CVE-2019-6155 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Medium
CVSS
4.1 (3.0)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
2Source links

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
4.1CVSS 3.0MediumCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H0.53.6Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.0 score

4.1Medium
CVSS 3.0 vector shape for CVE-2019-6155Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
IBMSystem x BIOSvariousListed
IBMBladeCenter BIOSvariousListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.