Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-19442 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-19442 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-19442?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 8.2, published 20 August 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- IBM Aix 7.2, 7.3; IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-19442?
- No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
- How is CVE-2026-19442 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-19442?
- Check whether you run IBM Aix or IBM PowerVM VIOS at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
A pointer validation flaw exists in the AIX Virtual SCSI (vSCSI) initiator driver affecting AIX 7.2, 7.3, and PowerVM VIOS 4.1. The vulnerability allows an attacker with local access to trigger invalid pointer dereferences through crafted vSCSI operations. Successful exploitation may result in denial of service (kernel panic), privilege escalation to root, or arbitrary code execution within the kernel context. The attack vector is local and likely requires at least user-level access to interact with the vSCSI driver. IBM has issued security patches via service packs and fix packs for supported releases.
Affected products
- IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3
- IBM PowerVM VIOS 4.1
Timeline
- 2026-08-20: disclosed
- 2026-08-21: advisory: IBM security bulletin updated with additional installation instructions