GNU glibc up to 2.44 swscanf/fwscanf/wscanf/vswscanf/vfwscanf/vwscanf out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in GNU glibc up to 2.44 and classified as critical. Affected is the function swscanf/fwscanf/wscanf/vswscanf/vfwscanf/vwscanf. The manipulation results in out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2026-115819. The attack can be launched remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in GNU glibc up to 2.44. Affected is the function swscanf/fwscanf/wscanf/vswscanf/vfwscanf/vwscanf. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Calling the wide scanf family of functions (swscanf, fwscanf, wscanf, vswscanf, vfwscanf and vwscanf) with a %s or %[ conversion without the 'l' length modifier in the GNU C Library version 2.2 to version 2.44 writes an extra null byte one past the end of the destination array when the converted multibyte string and its terminating null byte exactly fill that array. These conversions store each wide input character into the caller's char array as a multibyte sequence. The conversion ends with the sequence that returns to the initial shift state, which also stores the terminating null byte, and the functions then append a second null byte. A destination sized for the converted string and one terminator, as the C standard requires the caller to provide, is therefore written one byte past its end. The out-of-bounds byte is always a null byte, which may corrupt adjacent data or crash the process. An attacker who supplies the input can trigger the overflow with a string whose converted length exactly fills the destination. The narrow scanf functions, the %ls and %l[ conversions into a wchar_t array, and the 'a' and 'm' allocation modifiers are not affected, and storing a wide scanf conversion into a narrow char array is uncommon. This issue affects all architectures and ABIs supported by the GNU C Library.

The advisory is shared for download at sourceware.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-115819 since 10/23/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 11/11/2026).

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

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Software Library

Vendor

• GNU

Name

• glibc

Version

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 2.2
• 2.3
• 2.4
• 2.5
• 2.6
• 2.7
• 2.8
• 2.9
• 2.10
• 2.11
• 2.12
• 2.13
• 2.14
• 2.15
• 2.16
• 2.17
• 2.18
• 2.19
• 2.20
• 2.21
• 2.22
• 2.23
• 2.24
• 2.25
• 2.26
• 2.27
• 2.28
• 2.29
• 2.30
• 2.31
• 2.32
• 2.33
• 2.34
• 2.35
• 2.36
• 2.37
• 2.38
• 2.39
• 2.40
• 2.41
• 2.42
• 2.43
• 2.44

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.gnu.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion