Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:LSummary
CVE-2025-36236 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Ibm Vios. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 40th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-36236 is a directory traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) in the NIM server service, known as nimesis (formerly NIM master), affecting IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3, as well as IBM VIOS 3.1 and 4.1. Published on 2025-11-13, the flaw allows a remote attacker to traverse directories on the system by sending a specially crafted URL request, enabling the writing of arbitrary files. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and lack of prerequisites.
An unauthenticated remote attacker with network access to the vulnerable NIM server can exploit this issue with low complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation allows writing arbitrary files to the filesystem, which could lead to overwriting configuration files, injecting malicious code, or facilitating further attacks, resulting in high integrity impact and low availability impact with no direct confidentiality loss.
IBM has published a security advisory at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7251173 detailing the vulnerability, affected versions, and mitigation guidance, including available patches for remediation.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-180538
Vulnerability Data
IBM AIX 7.2, and 7.3 and IBM VIOS 3.1, and 4.1 NIM server (formerly known as NIM master) service (nimesis) could allow a remote attacker to traverse directories on the system. An attacker could send a specially crafted URL request…
more
to write arbitrary files on the system.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.