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AixOperating system · Ibm

CVE-2007-4238

MEDIUM · 6.9 CVSS v2.0 Published 2007-08-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
AIX 5.2 and 5.3 install pioinit with user and group ownership of bin, which allows local users with bin or possibly printq privileges to gain root privileges by modifying pioinit.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

In AIX 5.2 and 5.3, the `pioinit` binary is installed with `bin` user and group ownership instead of root. Local users who have `bin` or `printq` privileges can modify this binary to execute arbitrary code with root privileges, achieving privilege escalation.

MitigationChange ownership of `/usr/lpp/pios/bin/pioinit` (or equivalent path) to root:root and set permissions to 755 or 555 to prevent modification by non-root users.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
AixOperating system
Affected:= 5.2= 5.3

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify AIX version is 5.2 or 5.3
    Run 'oslevel -s' or 'lsattr -E -l sys0 -a oslevel' to check the installed AIX version
    Affected if The version output shows 5.2.x or 5.3.x (any subversion)
  2. Locate the pioinit binary
    Check if the file exists at '/usr/lpp/pios/bin/pioinit' or search with 'find /usr -name pioinit -type f 2>/dev/null'
    Affected if The pioinit binary is found on the system at any path
  3. Check ownership of pioinit binary
    Run 'ls -la /usr/lpp/pios/bin/pioinit' or 'ls -la <found_path>' to view owner and group
    Affected if Owner is 'bin' or group is 'bin' instead of 'root'
  4. Check permissions on pioinit binary
    Run 'ls -la' on the pioinit binary and check the permission bits
    Affected if The file is writable by owner 'bin' (permissions include 'bin' write) or is world-writable
  5. Identify users with bin or printq privileges
    Run 'lsuser -a all <username>' for users or check '/etc/security/user' for users with 'bin' or 'prooq' (printq) groups in their attributes
    Affected if Any non-root user has bin or printq group membership or privileges

User is affected if running AIX 5.2 or 5.3 AND the pioinit binary is owned by bin:bin instead of root:root AND non-root users with bin/printq privileges can write to it

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Change ownership of `/usr/lpp/pios/bin/pioinit` (or equivalent path) to root:root and set permissions to 755 or 555 to prevent modification by non-root users.

Fix this in Aix Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2007-4238 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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