Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 MIME Type Detection xdgmimemagic.c xdg_mime_magic_parse_magic_line out-of-bounds write

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Enterprise Linux 7, Enterprise Linux 8 and Enterprise Linux 9. It has been rated as problematic. Affected is the function xdg_mime_magic_parse_magic_line of the file xdgmimemagic.c of the component MIME Type Detection. This manipulation causes out-of-bounds write. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-16118. The attack can only be executed locally. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Enterprise Linux 7, Enterprise Linux 8 and Enterprise Linux 9 (version unknown) and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function xdg_mime_magic_parse_magic_line of the file xdgmimemagic.c of the component MIME Type Detection. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds write vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-787. The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. As an impact it is known to affect integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A flaw was found in xdgmime. A heap-based buffer overflow can be triggered in _xdg_mime_magic_parse_magic_line() in the xdgmimemagic.c file on little-endian systems when an attacker-controlled MIME magic file in a user-writable XDG data location (e.g., in the $XDG_DATA_HOME/mime/magic path) is parsed by an application performing MIME type detection (e.g., via g_content_type_guess()). When performing byte-swap, incorrect pointer arithmetic on the write side causes an out-of-bounds write of 2 bytes, resulting in an application crash or memory corruption.

It is possible to read the advisory at access.redhat.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-16118 since 07/17/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. Attacking locally is a requirement. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/17/2026).

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

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Red Hat

Name

• Enterprise Linux 7
• Enterprise Linux 8
• Enterprise Linux 9
• Enterprise Linux 10

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.redhat.com/

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