Buffer overflow in Fossies Gawk
CVE-2026-40553
Buffer overflow vulnerability has been found in "extension/readdir.c" program file of gawk (ftype() routine). This issue could be used to crash the program and potentially to achieve code execution, although the latter has not been confirmed to be feasible. It affects gawk in versions 5.4.0 and below.
Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.003 (19.9th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 20th percentile — 19.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.003 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Fossies Gawk
- GNU Gawk — versions 0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gawk.git/commit/ (Patch, patch)
- cert.pl/en/posts/2026/07/CVE-2026-40467 (Third Party Advisory, third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-40553?
- CVE-2026-40553 is a high-severity vulnerability in Fossies Gawk, classified under Stack-based Buffer Overflow. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-07-13.
- How severe is CVE-2026-40553?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.