{"id":86683,"date":"2026-03-14T06:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:16:20","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T06:00:00","slug":"cve-2025-33109-ibm-i-vulnerability-leads-to-privilege-escalation-and-denial-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-33109-ibm-i-vulnerability-leads-to-privilege-escalation-and-denial-of-service\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-33109: IBM i Vulnerability Leads to Privilege Escalation and Denial of Service<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The CVE-2025-33109 is a critical vulnerability that affects IBM i versions 7.2 through 7.6. This vulnerability could allow a bad actor to escalate privileges and execute a database procedure or function without required permissions. Moreover, this vulnerability could also lead to a denial of service for some database actions. This is a significant issue that requires immediate attention due to the potential for system compromise or data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-33109<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.5 CVSS Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: Privilege escalation and potential denial of service<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-437146918\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>IBM i | 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, and 7.6<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The exploit works by taking advantage of an invalid database authority check in IBM i. A bad actor could execute a database procedure or function without having all required permissions, essentially bypassing the security measures in place. This could lead to a privilege escalation, granting the attacker access to sensitive data and system capabilities. Additionally, this exploit could also cause a denial of service for some database actions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4238285369\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>This is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This is not actual exploit code but an illustration of the potential attack mechanism.<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">EXECUTE AS USER = &#039;low_privilege_user&#039;\nGO\n-- This is a function\/procedure that should require higher privileges\nEXECUTE dbo.vulnerable_procedure\nGO<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, a low-privileged user is executing a database procedure that normally requires higher privileges. The invalid authority check in IBM i versions 7.2 through 7.6 allows this to happen without raising any security flags.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best way to mitigate this vulnerability is by applying the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available. In the interim, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) may provide temporary mitigation. However, this should not be considered a long-term solution, as it does not address the root cause of the vulnerability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The CVE-2025-33109 is a critical vulnerability that affects IBM i versions 7.2 through 7.6. This vulnerability could allow a bad actor to escalate privileges and execute a database procedure or function without required permissions. Moreover, this vulnerability could also lead to a denial of service for some database actions. This is a significant issue [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-86683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86683"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=86683"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=86683"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=86683"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=86683"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=86683"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=86683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}