What is CVE-2026-24857?

CVE-2026-24857 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Simsong Bulk Extractor, classified under Heap-based Buffer Overflow. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-01-28.

How severe is CVE-2026-24857?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Simsong Bulk Extractor

CVE-2026-24857

`bulk_extractor` is a digital forensics exploitation tool. Starting in version 1.4, `bulk_extractor`’s embedded unrar code has a heap‑buffer‑overflow in the RAR PPM LZ decoding path. A crafted RAR inside a disk image causes an out‑of‑bounds write in `Unpack::CopyString`, leading to a crash under ASAN (and likely a crash or memory corruption in production builds). There's potential for using this for RCE. As of time of publication, no known patches are available.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2026-01-28 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (34.5th percentile), scored 2026-10-03.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 34th percentile — 34.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: +0.000

Affected products

Simsong Bulk Extractor — versions >= 1.4, <= 2.1.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

github.com/simsong/bulk_extractor/security/advisories/GHSA-rh8m-9xrx-q64q (Exploit, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-24857?: CVE-2026-24857 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Simsong Bulk Extractor, classified under Heap-based Buffer Overflow. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-01-28.
How severe is CVE-2026-24857?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.