Integer overflow in GNU Glibc
CVE-2026-0861
Passing too large an alignment to the memalign suite of functions (memalign, posix_memalign, aligned_alloc) in the GNU C Library version 2.30 to 2.42 may result in an integer overflow, which could consequently result in a heap corruption. Note that the attacker must have control over both, the size as well as the alignment arguments of the memalign function to be able to exploit this. The size parameter must be close enough to PTRDIFF_MAX so as to overflow size_t along with the large alignment argument. This limits the malicious inputs for the alignment for memalign to the range [1<<62+ 1, 1<<63] and exactly 1<<63 for posix_memalign and aligned_alloc. Typically the alignment argument passed to such functions is a known constrained quantity (e.g. page size, block size, struct sizes) and is not attacker controlled, because of which this may not be easily exploitable in practice. An application bug could potentially result in the input alignment being too large, e.g. due to a different buffer overflow or integer overflow in the application or its dependent libraries, but that is again an uncommon usage pattern given typical sources of alignments.
Vulnerability class: Integer Overflow
EPSS: 0.004 (28.9th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.4 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Gnu Glibc
- The Gnu C Library Glibc — versions 2.30
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- 3ff69d7a-14f2-4f67-a097-88dee7810d18 (Exploit)
- 3ff69d7a-14f2-4f67-a097-88dee7810d18 (Patch)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List, Patch)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-0861?
- CVE-2026-0861 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Glibc, classified under Integer Overflow or Wraparound. CVSS score: 8.4/10. Published 2026-01-14.
- How severe is CVE-2026-0861?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.4 out of 10.