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Security Bulletin: Multiple vulnerabilities impact AIX/VIOS due to OpenSSL

Security Bulletin


Summary

Vulnerabilities in OpenSSL could allow an attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code (CVE-2025-15467) or cause a denial of service (CVE-2025-68160, CVE-2025-69418, CVE-2025-69419, CVE-2025-69420, CVE-2025-69421, CVE-2026-22795, CVE-2026-22796). OpenSSL is used by AIX as part of AIX's secure network communications.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID:   CVE-2025-15467
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: Parsing CMS AuthEnvelopedData or EnvelopedData message with maliciously crafted AEAD parameters can trigger a stack buffer overflow. Impact summary: A stack buffer overflow may lead to a crash, causing Denial of Service, or potentially remote code execution. When parsing CMS (Auth)EnvelopedData structures that use AEAD ciphers such as AES-GCM, the IV (Initialization Vector) encoded in the ASN.1 parameters is copied into a fixed-size stack buffer without verifying that its length fits the destination. An attacker can supply a crafted CMS message with an oversized IV, causing a stack-based out-of-bounds write before any authentication or tag verification occurs. Applications and services that parse untrusted CMS or PKCS#7 content using AEAD ciphers (e.g., S/MIME (Auth)EnvelopedData with AES-GCM) are vulnerable. Because the overflow occurs prior to authentication, no valid key material is required to trigger it. While exploitability to remote code execution depends on platform and toolchain mitigations, the stack-based write primitive represents a severe risk. The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the CMS implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue.
CWE:   CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write
CVSS Source:   CISA ADP
CVSS Base score:   9.8
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2025-68160
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: Writing large, newline-free data into a BIO chain using the line-buffering filter where the next BIO performs short writes can trigger a heap-based out-of-bounds write. Impact summary: This out-of-bounds write can cause memory corruption which typically results in a crash, leading to Denial of Service for an application. The line-buffering BIO filter (BIO_f_linebuffer) is not used by default in TLS/SSL data paths. In OpenSSL command-line applications, it is typically only pushed onto stdout/stderr on VMS systems. Third-party applications that explicitly use this filter with a BIO chain that can short-write and that write large, newline-free data influenced by an attacker would be affected. However, the circumstances where this could happen are unlikely to be under attacker control, and BIO_f_linebuffer is unlikely to be handling non-curated data controlled by an attacker. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity. The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the BIO implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
CWE:   CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write
CVSS Source:   CISA ADP
CVSS Base score:   4.7
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2025-69418
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: When using the low-level OCB API directly with AES-NI orbrother hardware-accelerated code paths, inputs whose length is not a multiplebrof 16 bytes can leave the final partial block unencrypted and unauthenticated.brbrImpact summary: The trailing 1-15 bytes of a message may be exposed inbrcleartext on encryption and are not covered by the authentication tag,brallowing an attacker to read or tamper with those bytes without detection.brbrThe low-level OCB encrypt and decrypt routines in the hardware-acceleratedbrstream path process full 16-byte blocks but do not advance the input/outputbrpointers. The subsequent tail-handling code then operates on the originalbrbase pointers, effectively reprocessing the beginning of the buffer whilebrleaving the actual trailing bytes unprocessed. The authentication checksumbralso excludes the true tail bytes.brbrHowever, typical OpenSSL consumers using EVP are not affected because thebrhigher-level EVP and provider OCB implementations split inputs so that fullbrblocks and trailing partial blocks are processed in separate calls, avoidingbrthe problematic code path. Additionally, TLS does not use OCB ciphersuites.brThe vulnerability only affects applications that call the low-levelbrCRYPTO_ocb128_encrypt() or CRYPTO_ocb128_decrypt() functions directly withbrnon-block-aligned lengths in a single call on hardware-accelerated builds.brFor these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity.brbrThe FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0 are not affectedbrby this issue, as OCB mode is not a FIPS-approved algorithm.brbrOpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue.brbrOpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
CWE:   CWE-325: Missing Cryptographic Step
CVSS Source:   CISA ADP
CVSS Base score:   4
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N)

CVEID:   CVE-2025-69419
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: Calling PKCS12_get_friendlyname() function on a maliciously crafted PKCS#12 file with a BMPString (UTF-16BE) friendly name containing non-ASCII BMP code point can trigger a one byte write before the allocated buffer. Impact summary: The out-of-bounds write can cause a memory corruption which can have various consequences including a Denial of Service. The OPENSSL_uni2utf8() function performs a two-pass conversion of a PKCS#12 BMPString (UTF-16BE) to UTF-8. In the second pass, when emitting UTF-8 bytes, the helper function bmp_to_utf8() incorrectly forwards the remaining UTF-16 source byte count as the destination buffer capacity to UTF8_putc(). For BMP code points above U+07FF, UTF-8 requires three bytes, but the forwarded capacity can be just two bytes. UTF8_putc() then returns -1, and this negative value is added to the output length without validation, causing the length to become negative. The subsequent trailing NUL byte is then written at a negative offset, causing write outside of heap allocated buffer. The vulnerability is reachable via the public PKCS12_get_friendlyname() API when parsing attacker-controlled PKCS#12 files. While PKCS12_parse() uses a different code path that avoids this issue, PKCS12_get_friendlyname() directly invokes the vulnerable function. Exploitation requires an attacker to provide a malicious PKCS#12 file to be parsed by the application and the attacker can just trigger a one zero byte write before the allocated buffer. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity according to our Security Policy. The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#12 implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
CWE:   CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write
CVSS Source:   CISA ADP
CVSS Base score:   7.4
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N)

CVEID:   CVE-2025-69420
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: A type confusion vulnerability exists in the TimeStamp Response verification code where an ASN1_TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid or NULL pointer dereference when processing a malformed TimeStamp Response file. Impact summary: An application calling TS_RESP_verify_response() with a malformed TimeStamp Response can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer when reading, resulting in a Denial of Service. The functions ossl_ess_get_signing_cert() and ossl_ess_get_signing_cert_v2() access the signing cert attribute value without validating its type. When the type is not V_ASN1_SEQUENCE, this results in accessing invalid memory through the ASN1_TYPE union, causing a crash. Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to provide a malformed TimeStamp Response to an application that verifies timestamp responses. The TimeStamp protocol (RFC 3161) is not widely used and the impact of the exploit is just a Denial of Service. For these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity. The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the TimeStamp Response implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
CWE:   CWE-754: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
CVSS Source:   CISA ADP
CVSS Base score:   7.5
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2025-69421
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: Processing a malformed PKCS#12 file can trigger a NULL pointer dereference in the PKCS12_item_decrypt_d2i_ex() function. Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to Denial of Service for an application processing PKCS#12 files. The PKCS12_item_decrypt_d2i_ex() function does not check whether the oct parameter is NULL before dereferencing it. When called from PKCS12_unpack_p7encdata() with a malformed PKCS#12 file, this parameter can be NULL, causing a crash. The vulnerability is limited to Denial of Service and cannot be escalated to achieve code execution or memory disclosure. Exploiting this issue requires an attacker to provide a malformed PKCS#12 file to an application that processes it. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity according to our Security Policy. The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#12 implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
CWE:   CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference
CVSS Source:   NVD
CVSS Base score:   7.5
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-22795
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: An invalid or NULL pointer dereference can happen in an application processing a malformed PKCS#12 file. Impact summary: An application processing a malformed PKCS#12 file can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer on memory read, resulting in a Denial of Service. A type confusion vulnerability exists in PKCS#12 parsing code where an ASN1_TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid pointer read. The location is constrained to a 1-byte address space, meaning any attempted pointer manipulation can only target addresses between 0x00 and 0xFF. This range corresponds to the zero page, which is unmapped on most modern operating systems and will reliably result in a crash, leading only to a Denial of Service. Exploiting this issue also requires a user or application to process a maliciously crafted PKCS#12 file. It is uncommon to accept untrusted PKCS#12 files in applications as they are usually used to store private keys which are trusted by definition. For these reasons, the issue was assessed as Low severity. The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS12 implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
CWE:   CWE-754: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
CVSS Source:   CISA ADP
CVSS Base score:   5.5
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-22796
DESCRIPTION:   Issue summary: A type confusion vulnerability exists in the signature verification of signed PKCS#7 data where an ASN1_TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid or NULL pointer dereference when processing malformed PKCS#7 data. Impact summary: An application performing signature verification of PKCS#7 data or calling directly the PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() function can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer when reading, resulting in a Denial of Service. The function PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() accesses the message digest attribute value without validating its type. When the type is not V_ASN1_OCTET_STRING, this results in accessing invalid memory through the ASN1_TYPE union, causing a crash. Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to provide a malformed signed PKCS#7 to an application that verifies it. The impact of the exploit is just a Denial of Service, the PKCS7 API is legacy and applications should be using the CMS API instead. For these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity. The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#7 parsing implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
CWE:   CWE-754: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
CVSS Source:   CISA ADP
CVSS Base score:   5.3
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L)

Affected Products and Versions

Affected Product(s)Version(s)
AIX7.2
AIX7.3
VIOS3.1
VIOS4.1

 

The vulnerabilities in the following filesets are being addressed:

 

FilesetLower LevelUpper Level
openssl.base3.0.0.03.0.16.1000

 

Note:

        A. OpenSSL versions below 3.0 are out-of-support. Customers are advised to upgrade to OpenSSL 3.0.

 

To find out whether the affected filesets are installed on your systems, refer to the lslpp command found in the AIX user's guide.

 

Example:  lslpp -L | grep -i openssl.base

 

Remediation/Fixes

A. FIXES

 

IBM strongly recommends addressing the vulnerability now.

 

The fixes can be downloaded via https from:

https://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/openssl_fix46.tar

 

The links above are to a tar file containing this signed advisory, fix packages, and OpenSSL signatures for each package. The fixes below include prerequisite checking. This will enforce the correct mapping between the fixes and AIX Technology Levels.

            

Note that the tar file contains Interim fixes that are based on OpenSSL version, and AIX OpenSSL fixes are cumulative. If an OpenSSL fileset with VMRF higher than the affected level listed above is available from the web download site, then that fileset is the recommended remediation.

 

You must be on the 'prereq for installation' level before applying the interim fix. This may require installing a new level(prereq version) first. Latest level of OpenSSL fileset is available from the web download site:

https://www.ibm.com/resources/mrs/assets?source=aixbp&S_PKG=openssl

 

AIX LevelInterim FixFileset Name (prereq for installation)
7.2, 7.3301610mb.260216.epkg.Zopenssl.base(3.0.16.1000)

 

VIOS LevelInterim FixFileset Name (prereq for installation)
3.1, 4.1301610mb.260216.epkg.Zopenssl.base(3.0.16.1000)

 

To extract the fixes from the tar file:

 

tar xvf openssl_fix46.tar

cd openssl_fix46

 

Verify you have retrieved the fixes intact:

 

The checksums below were generated using the "openssl dgst -sha256 [file]" command as the following:

 

openssl dgst -sha256filename
27c1c6293498b1cb01e54b31abc5379cd83b228ed82e9078829413f4d1040dc3301610mb.260216.epkg.Z

 

The checksums below were generated using the "openssl dgst -sha512 [filename]" command as the following:

 

openssl dgst -sha512filename
990165bdb3c4aeca8feec1c5acb1bff1f7195e0ff1b565defbf9cbb3693e33f98821aa6912b0f86cccee2882082bc172d5855f2b1cc4d2556c20a2429908547c301610mb.260216.epkg.Z

 

These sums should match exactly. The OpenSSL signatures in the tar file and on this advisory can also be used to verify the integrity of the fixes.  If the sums or signatures cannot be confirmed, contact IBM AIX Support at https://ibm.com/support/ and describe the discrepancy.

            

openssl dgst -sha256 -verify [pubkey_file] -signature [advisory_file].sig [advisory_file]

openssl dgst -sha256 -verify [pubkey_file] -signature [ifix_file].sig [ifix_file]

 

Published advisory OpenSSL signature file location:

https://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/openssl_advisory46.asc.sig

 

B. FIX AND INTERIM FIX INSTALLATION

 

Interim fixes have had limited functional and regression testing but not the full regression testing that takes place for Service Packs; however, IBM does fully support them.

 

Interim fix management documentation can be found at:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/managing-interim-fixes-aix

 

To preview an interim fix installation:

emgr -e ipkg_name -p         # where ipkg_name is the name of the

                                         # interim fix package being previewed.

 

To install an interim fix package:

emgr -e ipkg_name -X         # where ipkg_name is the name of the

                                         # interim fix package being installed.

 

Workarounds and Mitigations

None

Get Notified about Future Security Bulletins

References

Off

Acknowledgement

Change History

09 Mar 2026: Initial Publication

*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.

Disclaimer

According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an "industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity and help to determine urgency and priority of response." IBM PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES ""AS IS"" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY. In addition to other efforts to address potential vulnerabilities, IBM periodically updates the record of components contained in our product offerings. As part of that effort, if IBM identifies previously unidentified packages in a product/service inventory, we address relevant vulnerabilities regardless of CVE date. Inclusion of an older CVEID does not demonstrate that the referenced product has been used by IBM since that date, nor that IBM was aware of a vulnerability as of that date. We are making clients aware of relevant vulnerabilities as we become aware of them. "Affected Products and Versions" referenced in IBM Security Bulletins are intended to be only products and versions that are supported by IBM and have not passed their end-of-support or warranty date. Thus, failure to reference unsupported or extended-support products and versions in this Security Bulletin does not constitute a determination by IBM that they are unaffected by the vulnerability. Reference to one or more unsupported versions in this Security Bulletin shall not create an obligation for IBM to provide fixes for any unsupported or extended-support products or versions.

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
09 March 2026

Initial Publish date:
09 March 2026

UID

ibm17262978