Affects IBM AIX and PowerVM—widely used enterprise OS/virtualization; remote arbitrary file overwrite can disrupt servers and services.
CVE-2026-16926
Remote arbitrary file overwrite in IBM AIX 7.2/7.3 and PowerVM VIOS 4.1.
Is CVE-2026-16926 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-16926 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.31% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-16926?
CVE-2026-16926 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.1. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-16926?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-16926. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-16926 affect?
CVE-2026-16926 affects IBM AIX 7.2, IBM AIX 7.3, IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-16926?
Apply vendor patch or mitigation when available; restrict access to management interfaces.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Remote attackers can overwrite arbitrary files, enabling code execution, data tampering, or service disruption via crafted input.
Immediate action required
- affected7.2
- affected7.3
- affected4.1
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.