CVE-2024-25021
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 · uneditedIBM AIX 7.3, VIOS 4.1's Perl implementation could allow a non-privileged local user to exploit a vulnerability to execute arbitrary commands. IBM X-Force ID: 281320.
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 confidenceThe Perl implementation in IBM AIX 7.3 and VIOS 4.1 contains a vulnerability allowing non-privileged local users to execute arbitrary commands, effectively enabling local privilege escalation. This is a high-severity (CVSS 8.4) issue affecting the Perl runtime environment on these specific IBM operating 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= 4.1= 7.3CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm your AIX or VIOS versionRun 'oslevel -s' on AIX or 'ioslevel' on VIOS to verify the exact OS versionAffected if The version is 7.3 for AIX or 4.1 for VIOS - these are the affected releases
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Check if Perl is installedRun 'which perl' or 'lslpp -l perl*' to see if the Perl runtime is present on the systemAffected if Perl is installed and available on the system (the vulnerability exists in the Perl runtime)
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Determine the installed Perl versionRun 'perl -v' to display the Perl version informationAffected if Perl is present - compare the version to IBM's advisory for CVE-2024-25021 to confirm it is unpatched
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Verify file ownership and permissions on the Perl interpreterRun 'ls -la $(which perl)' to check ownership and execute permissionsAffected if The Perl interpreter is owned by root and has world-executable permissions, allowing any local user to invoke it
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Check for setuid Perl scripts or wrappersSearch for any setuid Perl binaries using 'find / -perm -4000 -name perl* 2>/dev/null'Affected if A setuid Perl binary exists, which would allow privilege escalation when exploited
You are affected if you are running AIX 7.3 or VIOS 4.1 with an unpatched Perl installation that is accessible to non-privileged local users.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply IBM's security patches for this vulnerability (refer to IBM X-Force ID 281320) during a scheduled maintenance window. Until patches are applied, minimize local user access, monitor for unauthorized Perl process execution, and restrict Perl interpreter access to trusted administrators only.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-25021 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-25021 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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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