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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2026-41992

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2026-06-29
  • WeaknessCWE-126

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

GNU gzip contains a global buffer overflow vulnerability in the LZH decompression logic caused by improper reuse of shared global state between different decompression formats within a single execution. GNU gzip maintains a global array that is shared across the LZ77, LZW, and LZH decompression routines and is not reinitialized between files processed in the same invocation. By decompressing a specially crafted LZW file followed by a specially crafted LZH file in a single gzip -d command, an attacker can poison the shared global state and subsequently trigger an out‑of‑bounds read in the LZH decoder. The LZH decompression logic follows stale values left in the shared array, causing reads past the end of the allocated global buffer. This issue has been fixed in commits 63dbf6b3b9e6e781df1a6a64e609b10e23969681 and e7378c2d421be6a286922374425680bbe9ad8b7d.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2026-06-2912:16CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Gnu gzip
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.14≤ 1.14no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As CERT-PL, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2026-08-27

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • gzipUbuntu:Pro:20.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1.10-0ubuntu4.1+esm1
  • gzipUbuntu:Pro:18.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1.6-5ubuntu1.2+esm1
  • gzipUbuntu:Pro:16.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1.6-4ubuntu1+esm2
  • gzipUbuntu:Pro:14.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1.6-3ubuntu1+esm2
  • gzipUbuntu:26.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1.14-1~exp2ubuntu1.1
  • gzipUbuntu:25.10all versions · no fixed version listed
  • gzipUbuntu:24.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1.12-1ubuntu3.2
  • gzipUbuntu:22.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1.10-4ubuntu4.2

61 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2026-41992 Red Hat Product Security52 products fixed · 6 known affected

    gzip: gzip: Information disclosure via global buffer overflow in LZH decompression

    gzip.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · gzip as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 · gzip.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 · +3 more

  • RHSA-2026:79717 Red Hat Product Security3 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update

  • RHSA-2026:66018 Red Hat Product Security5 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5.3 security update

  • RHSA-2026:65998 Red Hat Product Security13 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: gzip security update

  • RHSA-2026:61783 Red Hat Product Security2 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: A Subscription Management tool for finding and reporting Red Hat product usage

  • RHSA-2026:61623 Red Hat Product Security13 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: gzip security update

2 more advisories

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:79717 · 3 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://images.redhat.com/
  2. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:66018 · 5 productsThe container images provided by this release, apart from the installer, should be deployed using rhui-installer utility. See the official documentation for more details.
  3. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:65998 · 13 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
  4. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:61783 · 2 productsThe containers required to run Discovery can be installed through discovery-installer RPM. See the official documentation for more details.
  5. No fix available, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2026-41992 · 6 productsFix deferred

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-01 01:02 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS 4.0 vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Published
2026-06-29
Last Modified
2026-10-25
NVD status
Modified
MSRC Title
Global Buffer Overflow in GNU gzip
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-qxh4-rprf-2mmj

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-41992?

GNU gzip contains a global buffer overflow vulnerability in the LZH decompression logic caused by improper reuse of shared global state between different decompression formats within a single execution. GNU gzip maintains a global array that is shared across the LZ77, LZW, and LZH decompression routines and is not reinitialized between files processed in the same invocation. By decompressing a specially crafted LZW file followed by a specially crafted LZH file in a single gzip -d command, an attacker can poison the shared global state and subsequently trigger an out‑of‑bounds read in the LZH decoder. The LZH decompression logic follows stale values left in the shared array, causing reads past the end of the allocated global buffer. This issue has been fixed in commits 63dbf6b3b9e6e781df1a6a64e609b10e23969681 and e7378c2d421be6a286922374425680bbe9ad8b7d.

Is CVE-2026-41992 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-41992 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.6% on 2026-11-09, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-41992?

CVE-2026-41992 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

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