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ViosApplication · Ibm

CVE-2010-0960

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2010-03-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Buffer overflow in qosmod in bos.net.tcp.server in IBM AIX 6.1 and VIOS 2.1 allows local users to gain privileges via unspecified vectors.

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 · moderate confidence

Buffer overflow in the qosmod utility within bos.net.tcp.server on IBM AIX 6.1 and VIOS 2.1 allows local unprivileged users to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges through unspecified vectors, resulting in local privilege escalation.

MitigationApply IBM AIX/VIOS security patches (PTFs) for this vulnerability. Restrict local user access to system utilities and follow least-privilege principles until patches can be deployed.

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
ViosApplication
Affected:= 2.1
AixOperating system
Affected:= 6.1= 6.1.0

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
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:L/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. Confirm AIX or VIOS version
    Run 'oslevel -s' on AIX or 'ioslevel' on VIOS to identify the operating system version
    Affected if Version is AIX 6.1.x or VIOS 2.1.x (any subversion)
  2. Verify bos.net.tcp.server fileset is installed
    Run 'lslpp -l bos.net.tcp.server' to check if the required network fileset is present
    Affected if The fileset is installed (vulnerability only applies if this component exists)
  3. Locate qosmod utility
    Run 'which qosmod' or 'find /usr -name qosmod -type f' to find the qosmod binary
    Affected if The qosmod executable exists on the system
  4. Check qosmod binary permissions
    Run 'ls -la $(which qosmod)' to examine ownership and permissions
    Affected if Binary is owned by root and/or has setuid bit, allowing unprivileged users to execute it

System is affected if running AIX 6.1 or VIOS 2.1 with bos.net.tcp.server fileset installed and the qosmod utility present and accessible to unprivileged users.

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

Apply IBM AIX/VIOS security patches (PTFs) for this vulnerability. Restrict local user access to system utilities and follow least-privilege principles until patches can be deployed.

Fix this in Vios Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,480
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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-2010-0960 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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data