CVE-2026-16938: Power System Missing Authorization

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.9 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-08-19 · updated 2026-08-25
Weakness: CWE-862

Description

IBM Power Systems Firmware FW1120.00, FW1110.00 through FW1110.30, FW1060.00 through FW1060.80, and FW950.00 through FW950.H2 is affected by a vulnerability in access controls over privileged system configuration operations on the FSP. An attacker with authenticated administrator-level access to the FSP can place the managed system into a non-production operational mode, allowing certain system components to be disabled. This condition persists across FSP resets and requires explicit operator intervention — clearing the affected configuration — to restore normal operation. Successful exploitation results in an availability impact to the managed system.

Affected products

IBM Power System E1080 (9080-Hex) Firmware: from fw1060.00 before fw1060.81 — fixed in fw1060.81
IBM Power System E1180 (9080-Heu) Firmware: from fw1110.00 before fw1110.31; fw1120.00 — fixed in fw1110.31
IBM Power System E950 (9040-Mr9) Firmware: from fw950.00 before fw950.h3 — fixed in fw950.h3
IBM Power System E980 (9080-M9S) Firmware: from fw950.00 before fw950.h3 — fixed in fw950.h3
IBM Power System H922 (9223-22S) Firmware: from fw950.00 before fw950.h3 — fixed in fw950.h3
IBM Power System H924 (9223-42S) Firmware: from fw950.00 before fw950.h3 — fixed in fw950.h3
IBM Power System S914 (9009-41G) Firmware: from fw950.00 before fw950.h3 — fixed in fw950.h3
IBM Power System S922 (9009-22G) Firmware: from fw950.00 before fw950.h3 — fixed in fw950.h3
IBM Power System S924 (9009-42G) Firmware: from fw950.00 before fw950.h3 — fixed in fw950.h3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: IBM Power System E1080 (9080-Hex) Firmware fw1060.81; IBM Power System E1180 (9080-Heu) Firmware fw1110.31; IBM Power System E950 (9040-Mr9) Firmware fw950.h3; IBM Power System E980 (9080-M9S) Firmware fw950.h3; IBM Power System H922 (9223-22S) Firmware fw950.h3; IBM Power System H924 (9223-42S) Firmware fw950.h3; IBM Power System S914 (9009-41G) Firmware fw950.h3; IBM Power System S922 (9009-22G) Firmware fw950.h3; IBM Power System S924 (9009-42G) Firmware fw950.h3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7283896

Get alerted when CVE-2026-16938 or the next vulnerability affects your stack