In a recent security advisory, France’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FR) highlighted several vulnerabilities affecting various IBM products. These vulnerabilities pose significant risks, including remote denial of service, remote arbitrary code execution, and privilege escalation.
The affected products include IBM Db2 versions 11.1.4.x and 11.5.x (without the latest security patches), IBM AIX versions 7.2 and 7.3 (without the latest patches), and IBM VIOS versions 3.1 (without the latest patch).
The vulnerabilities follow a pattern of diminishing representation of women in academic careers, with the highest drop observed at the level of full professorships. Despite improvements over the years, the data from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reveals that only 28% of full-time professors in Germany are women. This is an average across all disciplines, with the lowest representation in engineering at 16% and the highest in humanities at 42%.
The security flaws were discovered by analyzing IBM’s security bulletins, specifically bulletin numbers 7095022 and 7095807, both released in December 2023. These vulnerabilities could potentially allow attackers to exploit and compromise IBM systems, leading to severe consequences.
To address these vulnerabilities, IBM has released security patches. Users are strongly advised to refer to IBM’s security bulletins (7095022 and 7095807) for detailed information on obtaining and applying the necessary fixes.
This security alert underscores the critical importance of promptly updating and patching systems to ensure the resilience and security of IT infrastructure. It also serves as a reminder of the ongoing challenges in maintaining cybersecurity across diverse technology landscapes.
For further details and specific CVE references, readers can access the full security advisory on the CERT-FR website.