Powervm HypervisorOperating system · Ibm

CVE-2022-34331

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-11-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
After performing a sequence of Power FW950, FW1010 maintenance operations a SRIOV network adapter can be improperly configured leading to desired VEPA configuration being disabled. IBM X-Force ID: 229695.

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

A sequence of Power firmware maintenance operations (FW950, FW1010) can cause SRIOV network adapters to become improperly configured, resulting in the intended VEPA (Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator) configuration being disabled. This configuration drift could allow unintended network traffic behavior or bypass expected network segmentation.

MitigationApply subsequent IBM Power firmware updates that address this configuration drift issue, and verify/re-apply VEPA configuration settings after any firmware maintenance operations on affected systems.

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
Powervm HypervisorOperating system
Affected:= fw950= fw1010

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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. Check Power firmware version
    Run `lsmcode -c` or `lslic -c` to display the current firmware version. Compare the output to fw950 or fw1010.
    Affected if The firmware version shown is exactly fw950 or fw1010
  2. Identify SRIOV network adapters
    Run `lsdev -type adapter | grep -i sriov` or `lsslot -c slot | grep -i sriov` to list configured SRIOV adapters.
    Affected if SRIOV network adapters are present in the system output
  3. Verify VEPA configuration on SRIOV adapters
    For each SRIOV adapter, run `lsattr -El <adapter> | grep -i vepa` to check the VirtualEthernetPortAggregator attribute. Alternatively, query each virtual ethernet port with `lsattr -El entX | grep vepa`.
    Affected if The vepa attribute shows as disabled, not configured, or the output shows a mismatch from the expected VEPA enabled state
  4. Check for configuration drift after firmware updates
    Compare current SRIOV adapter configuration against documented baseline or expected configuration. Use `lsattr -El <adapter>` before and after firmware maintenance to detect changes.
    Affected if The current configuration differs from the intended VEPA configuration, or VEPA was previously enabled but is now disabled

A system is affected if it runs IBM PowerVM firmware fw950 or fw1010, has SRIOV network adapters configured, and the VEPA configuration is disabled or has drifted from the intended state.

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 subsequent IBM Power firmware updates that address this configuration drift issue, and verify/re-apply VEPA configuration settings after any firmware maintenance operations on affected systems.

Fix this in Powervm Hypervisor Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-34331 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2022-34331 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
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