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Power Hardware Management Console FirmwareOperating system · Ibm

CVE-2012-2188

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-08-06
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
IBM Power Hardware Management Console (HMC) 7R3.5.0 before SP4, 7R7.1.0 and 7R7.2.0 before 7R7.2.0 SP3, and 7R7.3.0 before SP2, and Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) 6R7.3.0 before SP2, does not properly restrict the VIOS viosrvcmd command, which allows local users to gain privileges via vectors involving a (1) $ (dollar sign) or (2) & (ampersand) character.

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

The IBM Power HMC and SDMC fail to properly restrict the VIOS viosrvcmd command, allowing local users to inject special characters ($ or &) to achieve privilege escalation. This is a command injection vulnerability in a privileged management command accessible to local users.

MitigationApply the relevant IBM service packs: SP4 for 7R3.5.0, SP3 for 7R7.2.0, and SP2 for 7R7.3.0 and SDMC 6R7.3.0. These updates properly restrict the viosrvcmd command to prevent character injection attacks.

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
Power Hardware Management Console FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 7r3.5.0= 7r7.1.0= 7r7.2.0= 7r7.3.0
Systems Director Management Console FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 6r7.3.0

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. Identify the product type
    Determine if the system is running IBM Power Hardware Management Console (HMC) or Systems Director Management Console (SDMC). Check the system documentation or login banner for the product name.
    Affected if The system is an IBM Power HMC or SDMC appliance.
  2. Check HMC firmware version
    From the HMC interface, navigate to HMC Management > Update and Install > View System Information, or run 'lshmc -v' from the HMC command line to display the firmware version.
    Affected if The firmware version is 7r3.5.0, 7r7.1.0, 7r7.2.0, or 7r7.3.0.
  3. Check SDMC firmware version
    From the SDMC interface, navigate to Help > About, or run 'lsvm -V' from the SDMC command line to display the firmware version.
    Affected if The firmware version is 6r7.3.0.
  4. Verify viosrvcmd command accessibility
    Check if the viosrvcmd command exists on the system by running 'which viosrvcmd' or 'ls /usr/sbin/viosrvcmd' as a local user. Attempt to execute the command to confirm it is accessible to non-privileged users.
    Affected if The viosrvcmd command is present and executable by local users without proper restrictions.
  5. Confirm vulnerable configuration
    Attempt to invoke viosrvcmd with special characters ($ or &) as a non-privileged local user, such as 'viosrvcmd -somearg $ malicious_command'. If the command processes these characters without sanitization, the system is vulnerable.
    Affected if The viosrvcmd command allows injection of $ or & characters which are processed by the underlying shell or system.

A system is affected if it is an IBM Power HMC (firmware 7r3.5.0, 7r7.1.0, 7r7.2.0, or 7r7.3.0) or SDMC (firmware 6r7.3.0) where the viosrvcmd command is accessible to local users without proper character filtering.

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 the relevant IBM service packs: SP4 for 7R3.5.0, SP3 for 7R7.2.0, and SP2 for 7R7.3.0 and SDMC 6R7.3.0. These updates properly restrict the viosrvcmd command to prevent character injection attacks.

Fix this in Power Hardware Management Console Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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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-2012-2188 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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