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CVE-2023-40686· NVD / CVE Program· CNA ibm

IBM i privilege escalation

Management Central as part of IBM i 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, and 7.5 Navigator contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with command line access to the operating system can exploit this vulnerability to elevate privileges to gain component access to the operating system. IBM X-Force ID: 264114.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
Oct 28, 2023
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.1% · 3th percentile
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Report tools

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Action score

31

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
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
7.8
CNA · ibm
4.9
2.9 point gap

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

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

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

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Affected systems

VendorProduct
ibmi

Affected versions

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

  • ibm i7.2
  • ibm i7.3
  • ibm i7.4
  • ibm i7.5

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 i

    • 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5affected

Same product

ibm: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-18193IBM i Is Affected By Multiple Vulnerabilities in IBM Java SDK and IBM Java Runtime
    40Plan
  • CVE-2026-18221IBM i is Affected By Improper Authorization and Authentication Vulnerabilities in DDM / DRDA [, ]
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2026-18249IBM i Is Affected By Multiple Vulnerabilities in IBM Java SDK and IBM Java Runtime
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2026-17206IBM i is Affected By Multiple Vulnerabilities in Host Servers
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2026-16961IBM i is Affected By SQL Injection Vulnerability in Db2 Mirror []
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2026-16867IBM i is Affected By Multiple Vulnerabilities in NetServer
    39Monitor

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.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

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.

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

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

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
kind: ClusterRolerules:  - apiGroups: ["*"]    resources: ["*"]    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml
kind: Rolemetadata:  namespace: lodos-systemrules:  - apiGroups: ["apps"]    resources: ["deployments"]    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.

Change log

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

References

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

All records