IBM i versions 7.3 through 7.6 contain a flaw in the Digital Certificate Manager component used for System TLS. When an application attempts to establish a secure network connection, a malformed input can cause the service to fail to start or force it to fall back to non‑secure connections. The weakness corresponds to improper resource allocation (CWE‑667) and results in an interruption of service. Operators may see the far‑edge application or TLS infrastructure stop running and cannot guarantee encrypted traffic.

The issue impacts IBM i Release 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, and 7.6, all of which include the Digital Certificate Manager and System TLS functionality. Patches are available for each release under the PTF identifiers SJ11843 (7.3), SJ11844 (7.4), SJ11845 (7.5), and SJ11846 (7.6).

The CVSS score of 5.1 indicates a moderate severity; the exploit probability is not publicly available but the lack of a KEV listing suggests it has not yet been widely observed. Attackers would need to trigger the failure by causing an application to request a TLS connection that leads to the vulnerable code path. The impact is localized to the targeted IBM i system and can prevent services from starting or reduce the integrity of secure communications.