CVE-2026-1346: IBM Security Verify Access Privilege Escalation

CVE-2026-1346 Overview

A local privilege escalation vulnerability has been identified in IBM Verify Identity Access and IBM Security Verify Access products. The vulnerability allows a locally authenticated user to escalate their privileges to root due to execution with unnecessary privileges than required. This weakness, classified as CWE-250 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges), affects both containerized and non-containerized deployments of these identity and access management solutions.

Critical Impact

A locally authenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability to gain root-level access, potentially compromising the entire system and any sensitive identity management data it processes.

Affected Products

• IBM Verify Identity Access Container 11.0 through 11.0.2
• IBM Security Verify Access Container 10.0 through 10.0.9.1
• IBM Verify Identity Access 11.0 through 11.0.2
• IBM Security Verify Access 10.0 through 10.0.9.1

Discovery Timeline

• April 8, 2026 - CVE-2026-1346 published to NVD
• April 9, 2026 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-1346

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability stems from improper privilege management within IBM's identity and access management products. The affected components execute certain processes or functions with elevated privileges that exceed what is necessary for their intended functionality. This design flaw creates an opportunity for locally authenticated users to leverage these unnecessarily privileged operations to escalate their access from a standard user account to root-level privileges.

The local attack vector requires an attacker to already have authenticated access to the system, but once this prerequisite is met, exploitation does not require user interaction and can be performed with low complexity. Successful exploitation results in complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system.

Root Cause

The root cause is CWE-250: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges. The application performs operations with root or elevated privileges when such privileges are not required for the specific task being performed. This violation of the principle of least privilege creates an exploitable condition where authenticated users can abuse these unnecessarily elevated execution contexts to gain root access.

Attack Vector

The attack requires local access to the target system with valid authentication credentials. An attacker who has established a foothold on the system as a low-privileged user can exploit the unnecessary privilege execution to escalate to root. The attack does not require user interaction and can be executed with low complexity once the attacker has local access.

The exploitation pattern typically involves identifying a process or function that runs with root privileges unnecessarily, then manipulating inputs or conditions to redirect the privileged execution in a way that benefits the attacker—such as writing to protected files, modifying system configurations, or spawning a root shell.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-1346

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected privilege escalation events in system audit logs
• Anomalous process execution patterns where IBM Verify/Security Verify processes spawn unexpected child processes with elevated privileges
• Unusual modifications to system files or configurations by processes associated with the affected IBM products
• Authentication or authorization anomalies in IBM Verify Identity Access logs

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for setuid/setgid calls and capability changes associated with IBM Verify processes
• Implement file integrity monitoring on critical system directories and configuration files
• Configure audit rules to track privilege escalation attempts (auditd rules for execve with privilege changes)
• Review container escape indicators if running containerized deployments

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging in IBM Verify Identity Access and Security Verify Access products
• Centralize log collection for correlation analysis across affected systems
• Implement runtime security monitoring to detect anomalous privilege escalation patterns
• Establish baseline behavior for IBM Verify processes to identify deviations

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-1346

Immediate Actions Required

• Review the IBM Support Advisory for specific patch and mitigation guidance
• Limit local system access to only essential personnel until patches are applied
• Implement additional monitoring on affected systems to detect exploitation attempts
• Review and restrict user accounts with local access to systems running affected products

Patch Information

IBM has published a security advisory addressing this vulnerability. Organizations should consult the IBM Support Page for detailed patching instructions, including specific fix versions for each affected product variant. Upgrade paths are available for both the containerized and non-containerized deployments of IBM Verify Identity Access 11.x and IBM Security Verify Access 10.x product lines.

Workarounds

• Restrict local access to affected systems to only trusted administrators until patching is complete
• Implement application allowlisting to prevent unauthorized executables from running in the context of affected services
• Deploy container security controls that limit privilege escalation within containerized deployments
• Consider network segmentation to isolate affected systems from sensitive resources

# Example: Review local user access on affected systems
# List users with shell access
cat /etc/passwd | grep -v nologin | grep -v false

# Review sudo privileges for non-root users
cat /etc/sudoers
cat /etc/sudoers.d/*

# Audit recent privilege escalation attempts
ausearch -m USER_CMD -ts recent