Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A malicious or compromised guest administrator can make certain OpenPOWER hosts fail during boot by corrupting firmware NVRAM data. The failure can persist until an operator clears NVRAM through the service processor. This creates substantial availability risk and may also affect system integrity. IBM states that PowerVM systems are not affected.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority availability issue on affected OpenPOWER infrastructure, particularly where outages affect critical workloads. Remediation should be scheduled promptly with recovery staff available because exploitation can leave a host unable to boot normally. PowerVM-only estates are not exposed according to IBM.
Technical view
Affected IBM Power Systems firmware improperly parses a crafted NVRAM image, causing an out-of-bounds read during the host firmware boot stage, with possible memory corruption. Exploitation requires root access within a guest partition on an OpenPOWER system. The resulting crash persists until NVRAM is cleared through the service processor. CVSS 3.1 is 7.3; CWE-125 applies.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to OpenPOWER systems running FW950.00 through FW950.H2, Power9 OP940.00 through OP940.a1, or Power HMC OP940.00 through OP940.81. PowerVM systems are explicitly unaffected. Practical risk depends on whether an attacker can obtain root access inside a guest partition.
Exploitation context
The supplied sources do not report active exploitation, and the CVE is not identified as being in CISA KEV. Exploitation is local rather than network-direct and requires guest root access. Nevertheless, a compromised privileged guest could cause persistent host disruption requiring hands-on operational recovery.
Researcher notes
The scope-changing CVSS vector reflects impact crossing from a guest partition into host firmware. Evidence supports integrity and high availability impact, but no confidentiality impact. The supplied bundle does not identify public proof-of-concept code, observed exploitation, or exact fixed firmware levels; consult IBM’s advisory for those remediation details.
Mitigation direction
- Review IBM advisory 7283240 and apply the vendor-provided firmware remediation for the exact platform and firmware branch.
- Prioritize OpenPOWER hosts where guest root access is broadly assigned or less tightly controlled.
- Restrict and monitor privileged guest access until affected firmware is remediated.
- Prepare service-processor procedures for clearing NVRAM and restoring affected systems.
Validation and detection
- Inventory OpenPOWER and PowerVM hosts separately; exclude PowerVM systems from the affected population.
- Compare installed firmware against FW950.00–FW950.H2 and the applicable OP940 ranges.
- Confirm remediated firmware versions and installation requirements directly from IBM advisory 7283240.
- Review guest privilege assignments and logs for unexpected root access or NVRAM-related activity.
- Verify operators can access the service processor and execute the documented NVRAM recovery procedure.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
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
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-125: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-17042 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H
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.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe 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.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H24.7ibmVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.3HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283240CVE reference, ibm · vendor-advisory, patch
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Out-of-bounds Read
Out-of-bounds Read represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.