NVD / CVE Program· CNA ibm

CVE-2023-38280: IBM Power HMC privilege escalation

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 31/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.17% (FIRST EPSS).
Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.
Mentioned 1 time in Turkish national cyber security advisories (siberguvenlik.gov.tr).

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

IBM HMC (Hardware Management Console) 10.1.1010.0 and 10.2.1030.0 could allow a local user to escalate their privileges to root access on a restricted shell. IBM X-Force ID: 260740.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded

Local privilege escalation

Published: Oct 15, 2023
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 0.1% · 6th percentile
CWE: CWE-269

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.1%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 7.8
CNA · ibm: 8.4; 0.6 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
ibm	hardware management console	cpe:2.3:a:ibm:hardware_management_console

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

ibm hardware management console10.1.1010.0
ibm hardware management console10.2.1030.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (ibm). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

IBM Power HMC
- 10.1.1010.0, 10.2.1030.0affected

Same product

ibm: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2009-0178Unspecified vulnerability in IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC) 7 release 3.2.0 SP1 has unknown impact and attack vectors.
41Plan
CVE-2007-6293Multiple unspecified vulnerabilities in IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC) 6 R1.3 allow attackers to gain privileges via "some HMC comman
41Plan
CVE-2026-12943This Power Hardware Management Console update is being released to address
39Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2016-0230Jul 7, 2016 · IBM Power Hardware Management Console (HMC) 7.3 through 7.3.0 SP7, 7.9 through 7.9.0 SP3, 8.1 through 8.1.0 SP3, 8.2 through 8.2.0 SP2, 8.3
27Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2021-29707Jul 19, 2021 · IBM HMC (Hardware Management Console) V9.1.910.0 and V9.2.950.0 could allow a local user to escalate their privileges to root access on a re
31Monitor
Later →CVE-2025-1950Apr 22, 2025 · IBM Hardware Management Console - Power Systems command execution
31Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

IBMHackerOne · disclosure only (VDP)

The product’s vendor appears in a public program. Matched by name; verify the scope text in the program.

National notice (Türkiye Cybersecurity Directorate / USOM)

Official security notices citing this record; remediation advice is on the agency's page.

TR-23-0587 · Oct 17, 2023(IBM Güvenlik Bildirimi)

All national notices →

Technical details

Attack conditions

Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
A low-privileged account is enough.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: high · data can be read
Integrity: high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Local
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: High
Integrity impact: High
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml

1kind: ClusterRole
2rules:
3  - apiGroups: ["*"]
4    resources: ["*"]
5    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml

1kind: Role
2metadata:
3  namespace: lodos-system
4rules:
5  - apiGroups: ["apps"]
6    resources: ["deployments"]
7    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Abuse Elevation Control MechanismT1548

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/260740

Show all references (1 more)

www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7047713

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records