CVE-2018-9085: IBM Bladecenter HS23 Firmware

Medium severity, CVSS 4.9. EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

A write protection lock bit was left unset after boot on an older generation of Lenovo and IBM System x servers, potentially allowing an attacker with administrator access to modify the subset of flash memory containing Intel Server Platform Services (SPS) and the system Flash Descriptors.

Affected products

  • IBM Bladecenter HS23 Firmware: before tke160c (fixed in tke160c)
  • IBM Bladecenter HS23E Firmware: before ahe160c (fixed in ahe160c)
  • IBM Flex System x220 m4 Firmware: before kse158c (fixed in kse158c)
  • IBM Flex System x222 m4 Firmware: before cce160c (fixed in cce160c)
  • IBM Flex System x240 m4 Firmware: before ahe160c (fixed in ahe160c)
  • IBM Flex System x280 x6 Firmware: before n3e132w (fixed in n3e132w)
  • IBM Flex System x440 m4 Firmware: before cne162d (fixed in cne162d)
  • IBM Flex System x480 x6 Firmware: before n3e132w (fixed in n3e132w)
  • IBM Flex System x880 x6 Firmware: before n2e130e (fixed in n2e130e)
  • IBM Idataplex DX360 m4 Firmware: before fhe120d (fixed in fhe120d)
  • IBM Idataplex DX360 m4 Water Cooled Firmware: before fhe120d (fixed in fhe120d)
  • IBM System x3100 m4 Firmware: before jqe184c (fixed in jqe184c)
  • IBM System x3100 m5 Firmware: before j9e134c (fixed in j9e134c)
  • IBM System x3250 m4 Firmware: before jqe184c (fixed in jqe184c)
  • IBM System x3250 m5 Firmware: before jue134c (fixed in jue134c)
  • IBM System x3300 m4 Firmware: before yae156c (fixed in yae156c)
  • IBM System x3500 m4 Firmware: before y5e158c (fixed in y5e158c)
  • IBM System x3530 m4 Firmware: before bee164c (fixed in bee164c)
  • IBM System x3550 m4 Firmware: before d7e166d (fixed in d7e166d)
  • IBM System x3630 m4 Firmware: before vve162c (fixed in vve162c)
  • IBM System x3650 m4 Bd Firmware: before vve160c (fixed in vve160c)
  • IBM System x3650 m4 Firmware: before vve160c (fixed in vve160c)
  • IBM System x3650 m4 Hd Firmware: before vve160c (fixed in vve160c)
  • IBM System x3750 m4 Firmware: before koe160c (fixed in koe160c)
  • IBM System x3850 x6 Firmware: before a8e128c (fixed in a8e128c)
  • and 4 more

Published 2018-11-16. Last modified 2026-06-17.