BusyBox AWK editors/awk.c evaluate stack-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in BusyBox. This issue affects the function evaluate of the file editors/awk.c of the component AWK Handler. The manipulation leads to stack-based overflow. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-38752. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in BusyBox (version now known) and classified as problematic. This issue affects the function evaluate of the file editors/awk.c of the component AWK Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a stack-based overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-121. A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function). Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

A stack overflow in the evaluate() function (editors/awk.c) of BusyBox commit 371fe9 allows attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via supplying a crafted AWK script.

The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-38752 since 04/06/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/15/2026).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• BusyBox

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒

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