CVE-2024-27260
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 could 7.2, 7.3, VIOS 3.1, and VIOS 4.1 allow a non-privileged local user to exploit a vulnerability in the invscout command to execute arbitrary commands. IBM X-Force ID: 283985.
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 confidenceA local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the invscout command on IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3 and VIOS 3.1, 4.1. A non-privileged local user can exploit this flaw to execute arbitrary commands with elevated privileges, likely through command injection or improper input validation within the invscout utility.
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= 3.1= 4.1= 7.2= 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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Locate the invscout binaryRun 'which invscout' or 'ls -la /usr/bin/invscout' to find if the invscout command exists on the systemAffected if The invscout binary is present on the system; absence means not affected by this specific vulnerability
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Determine invscout versionRun 'invscout -V' or 'invscout -version' to obtain the installed version number, then compare against the affected versions (AIX 7.2, 7.3 and VIOS 3.1, 4.1)Affected if The installed version matches AIX 7.2, 7.3 or VIOS 3.1, 4.1, or falls within the same version branch without a security patch applied
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Check invscout permissionsRun 'ls -la' on the invscout binary path and look for 's' in the owner or group permission fields (setuid/setgid)Affected if The invscout binary has setuid or setgid permissions, which enables a non-privileged user to potentially leverage the flaw for privilege escalation
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Verify non-privileged user accessAttempt to run invscout as a non-root user (e.g., 'su - nonrootuser -c "invscout"') or check file permissions on the binaryAffected if Non-privileged users can execute invscout, creating the conditions for local privilege escalation
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Check for recent security patchesRun 'invscout -V' and compare the full version string against IBM's published fixed versions, or check 'lslpp -l' output for invscout packagesAffected if No IBM security patch (APAR) has been applied to the invscout installation, or the version remains unpatched
A system is affected if invscout is installed, runs with elevated privileges, and non-privileged users can execute it without having applied the IBM security patch for this CVE.
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 the IBM patch for APAR (if available) or update invscout to a patched version. Restrict local user access to the system and limit privileged command usage until the patch is applied.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-27260 — 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-2024-27260 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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