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Security Bulletin: AIX is vulnerable to a denial of service due to NTP and tmux.

Security Bulletin


Summary

Multiple vulnerabilities in NTP and tmux could allow a remote attacker to cause Integer Overflow (CVE-2026-63384), Out-of-bounds Read (CVE-2026-63383), Memory Corruption (CVE-2026-63381, CVE-2026-63387, CVE-2026-63388), HTTP Request Smuggling / Header Injection (CVE-2026-63379, CVE-2026-63382, CVE-2026-63385).

Vulnerability Details

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63379
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent processes chunked HTTP trailers in http.c through evhttp_read_trailer and merges them into request headers. The fix introduces evhttp_parse_headers_impl_ and a temporary trailer header list. An unauthenticated remote attacker can place security-sensitive fields in trailers so that an upstream proxy and the libevent application interpret different effective headers, enabling header smuggling, authorization bypass, proxy-header spoofing, or cache poisoning. The fix parses trailers into a temporary header list and discards them instead of merging them into req-input_headers. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
CWE:   CWE-444: Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request/Response Smuggling')
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   6.3
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63381
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has a use-after-free in buffer.c when evbuffer_add_buffer_reference processes an output buffer whose out_total_len is zero. evbuffer_free_all_chains frees the initial empty chain without resetting outbuf-first, outbuf-last, or outbuf-last_with_datap, and APPEND_CHAIN_MULTICAST subsequently dereferences the dangling chain pointer. A caller that can drive this buffer state can cause memory corruption or a process crash. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
CWE:   CWE-908: Use of Uninitialized Resource
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   5.8
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63382
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, the libevent evhttp parser in http.c inconsistently handles duplicate Transfer-Encoding headers, comma-separated Transfer-Encoding values, and bare line feeds in chunked framing. evhttp_find_header can select only the first header, evhttp_check_transfer_encoding_ was absent so the previous whole-string comparison fails to recognize valid lists ending in chunked, and evhttp_handle_chunked_read uses EVBUFFER_EOL_CRLF rather than EVBUFFER_EOL_CRLF_STRICT, accepting bare LF chunk terminators. When libevent is deployed behind a proxy that frames the same request differently, an unauthenticated remote attacker can desynchronize request boundaries and smuggle a second request, potentially bypassing access controls or poisoning caches. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
CWE:   CWE-444: Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request/Response Smuggling')
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   9.2
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63383
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent can read beyond a contiguous evbuffer region in event_tagging.c when decode_tag_internal requests at most five bytes from evbuffer_pullup but iterates using the full logical buffer length. A fragmented evbuffer containing a six-byte malformed tag can therefore advance past the pullup window and trigger an out-of-bounds read, which can crash a process that decodes attacker-controlled tagged RPC data. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
CWE:   CWE-125: Out-of-bounds Read
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   8.7
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63384
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has an incorrect integer conversion in event_tagging.c when evtag_unmarshal_header uses evtag_decode_int to decode an attacker-controlled uint32 payload length and returns it as a signed int. Values above INT_MAX become negative or truncated, and evtag_unmarshal_string can use the converted value in allocation sizing, producing a wrapped large allocation request and denial of service. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
CWE:   CWE-190: Integer Overflow or Wraparound
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   8.7
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63385
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has two HTTP parsing weaknesses in http.c. evhttp_decode_uri_internal decodes percent-encoded %00 bytes into literal NUL characters, which can cause downstream C string operations to truncate a path and bypass validation performed on a different representation. evhttp_header_is_valid_value also accepts obsolete line folding in header values containing carriage return or line feed characters, allowing a proxy and libevent to interpret headers differently and enabling header injection or access control bypass. The CRLF header acceptance is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, but the reviewed patches do not clearly remediate the URI NUL-truncation condition.
CWE:   CWE-444: Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request/Response Smuggling')
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   9.2
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63387
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has an off-by-one stack buffer overflow in evdns.c when dnsname_to_labels formats a name-bearing DNS record at the end of the 64 KB stack buffer allocated by evdns_server_request_format_response. The final-label check permits j plus label_len plus one to equal buf_len, after which the terminating null byte is written to buf[buf_len]. A crafted DNS server response containing PTR, CNAME, MX, NS, or SOA data can trigger the one-byte out-of-bounds write and crash or corrupt the process. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
CWE:   CWE-121: Stack-based Buffer Overflow
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   7
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H)

CVEID:   CVE-2026-63388
DESCRIPTION:   Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has a heap out-of-bounds write in bufferevent_sock.c when bufferevent_socket_set_conn_address_ copies a kernel-supplied AF_UNIX peer address into bufferevent_private.conn_address. Release builds compiled with NDEBUG disable the EVUTIL_ASSERT length guard, and the evhttp accept path can pass a 110-byte sockaddr from accept() into the 28-byte field. An unauthenticated local peer able to connect to an AF_UNIX listener can overwrite the adjacent dns_request pointer and heap data, causing memory corruption with confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
CWE:   CWE-617: Reachable Assertion
CVSS Source:   security-advisories@github.com
CVSS Base score:   8.4
CVSS Vector:   (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Affected Products and Versions

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

 

The vulnerabilities in the following filesets are being addressed:

key_fileset = aix

 

For NTP:

FilesetLower LevelUpper LevelKEYPRODUCT(S)
ntp.rte7.4.2.81007.4.2.8172key_w_fsNTP
ntp.rte73.4.2.815173.4.2.8172key_w_fsNTP

 

For tmux:

FilesetLower LevelUpper LevelKEYPRODUCT(S)
tmux.rte3.5.1.03.5.1.0key_w_fstmux

 

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

Example:  lslpp -L | grep -i ntp.rte

Note1: tmux affects only AIX 7.3 TL4.

Note2: Only CVEs CVE-2026-63388, CVE-2026-63381 are impacting tmux. 

 

Remediation/Fixes

A. FIXES

IBM strongly recommends addressing the vulnerability now.

AIX and VIOS fixes are available. The fixes are cumulative and address previously issued AIX/VIOS NTP security bulletins with respect to fileset level.

The AIX and VIOS fixes can be downloaded via https from:

https://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/ntp_tmux_fix15.tar 

The link above is 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.

 For NTP:

AIX LevelFixKEYPRODUCT(S)
7.2ntp.rte.7.2key_w_fixNTP
7.3ntp.rte.7.3key_w_fixNTP

 

VIOS LevelFixKEY PRODUCT(S)
4.1ntp.rte.7.3key_w_fixNTP

 

For tmux:

AIX LevelFixKEYPRODUCT(S)
7.3.4tmux.rte.3.5.1.1key_w_fixtmux

 

To extract the fixes from the tar file:

tar xvf ntp_tmux_fix15.tar

cd ntp_tmux_fix15

 

Verify you have retrieved the fixes intact:

The checksums below were generated using the following command:

"openssl dgst -sha256 [filename]"

openssl dgst -sha256filenameKEY
580ed275e9dbf6c0e984cbdcc587fb6d9b61d025a0acc8de273ca2cfdb27e807ntp.rte.7.2key_w_csum
241b57eb5eacdd7cd5e77a2771f9b262b287176e547287bf67c60aa3fe4fcf4cntp.rte.7.3key_w_csum
fc474ca1efad9e229e4c84560e54ef3571b37ab17fa8620bb3bfc77e4a147ff0tmux.rte.3.5.1.1key_w_csum

 

The checksums below were generated using the following command:

"openssl dgst -sha512 [filename]"

openssl dgst -sha512filenameKEY
d732a5295c145a9be5578c38b0ecf300ef25111de6b6962eb5359f9009acd05ad40721459c5aa99bcb679f7ddd1c9bfe3a2491d642093eab7d7c77c5cd11c7f6ntp.rte.7.2
key_4K_w_csum
939ef7a4fce25524a8bf3a6bbee9d562b739d16a8069ff11a771434e835d7aebc04ba5c24bfa08bffeba125ac7a6ba3a1f4c29ed3138f67834f8fc847d5e73dantp.rte.7.3
key_4K_w_csum
1e3835239df01674e22f88396d46e3ad8fefe78aaf2f986d2fbe2d22117d161ad47f3277ed5e72dee1f2e6bfbafef8199d079e21a1fa4a971e5448f39ba3557etmux.rte.3.5.1.1
key_4K_w_csum

 

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 Support at

http://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/ntp_tmux_advisory15.asc.sig

 

C. FIX AND INTERIM FIX INSTALLATION

If possible, it is recommended that a mksysb backup of the systembbe created. Verify it is both bootable and readable before proceeding.

 

To preview a fix installation:

installp -a -d fix_name -p all  # where fix_name is the name of the

                                            # fix package being previewed.

To install a fix package:

installp -a -d fix_name -X all  # where fix_name is the name of the

                                            # fix package being installed.

 

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

21 Oct 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:
21 October 2026

Initial Publish date:
21 October 2026

UID

ibm17293282