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AixOperating system · Ibm

CVE-2017-1093

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-02-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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 AIX 6.1, 7.1, and 7.2 could allow a local user to exploit a vulnerability in the bellmail binary to gain root privileges.

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

A local privilege escalation vulnerability in the bellmail binary on IBM AIX 6.1, 7.1, and 7.2 allows an unprivileged local user to exploit the bellmail utility to gain root privileges. The vulnerability stems from improper handling or privilege escalation logic within the bellmail program.

MitigationApply the IBM AIX security patch for CVE-2017-1093 from IBM support. If bellmail is not required, remove or restrict the binary to prevent exploitation.

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:= 6.1= 7.1= 7.2

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
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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
    Run 'oslevel -s' or 'lsattr -El sys0 -a oslevel' to determine the installed AIX version
    Affected if The version shown is 6.1, 7.1, or 7.2 (any release within these major.minor versions)
  2. Locate the bellmail binary
    Run 'which bellmail' or 'find /usr -name bellmail -type f 2>/dev/null' to find the binary
    Affected if The bellmail binary exists on the system at any location (typically /usr/bin/bellmail or /usr/sbin/bellmail)
  3. Check bellmail file permissions
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/bellmail' or 'ls -la $(which bellmail)' to view ownership and permissions
    Affected if The binary is owned by root and has the setuid bit set (permissions show 'rwsr-xr-x' or similar with owner root)
  4. Verify setuid root status
    Run 'find /usr -name bellmail -perm -4000 -user root 2>/dev/null' to specifically check for setuid root binary
    Affected if The bellmail binary is found with setuid root permissions (allows execution with root privileges)

If the system runs AIX 6.1, 7.1, or 7.2 AND the bellmail binary exists with setuid root permissions, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2017-1093 privilege escalation.

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 IBM AIX security patch for CVE-2017-1093 from IBM support. If bellmail is not required, remove or restrict the binary to prevent exploitation.

Fix this in Aix Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
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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-2017-1093 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