gethostbyaddr and gethostbyaddr_r return invalid DNS hostnames
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Adjacent network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Code execution
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · None
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 14 fixed, 4 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-88.
Summary
Calling gethostbyaddr or gethostbyaddr_r with a configured nsswitch.conf that specifies the library's DNS backend in the GNU C library version 2.34 to version 2.43 could result in an invalid DNS hostname being returned to the caller in violation of the DNS specification.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
Red Hat 16 advisories
- RHSA-2026:82888 Released 2026-10-14 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.17.2
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/cert-manager-operator-bundle
- RHSA-2026:82857 Released 2026-10-14 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.18.2
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/cert-manager-operator-bundle
- RHSA-2026:82372 Released 2026-10-13 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.18.2
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/cert-manager-operator-rhel9
Show 13 more Red Hat advisories
- RHSA-2026:82354 Released 2026-10-13 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.18.2
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/cert-manager-istio-csr-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:82347 Released 2026-10-13 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.18.2
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-acmesolver-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:82322 Released 2026-10-13 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.17.2
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/cert-manager-operator-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:82304 Released 2026-10-13 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.17.2
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-acmesolver-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:72502 Released 2026-09-28 · Red Hat rating Importantcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.20.1
- Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.20 registry.redhat.io/cert-manager/cert-manager-trust-manager-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:58981 Released 2026-08-24 · Red Hat rating CriticalRed Hat Update Infrastructure 5.3 Technology Preview security update
- Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 registry.redhat.io/rhui5/cds-kubernetes-tp-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhui5/installer-tp-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhui5/rhua-tp-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:29197 Released 2026-06-24 · Red Hat rating ImportantA Subscription Management tool for finding and reporting Red Hat product usage
- Red Hat Discovery 2 registry.redhat.io/discovery/discovery-server-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/discovery/discovery-ui-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:27998 Released 2026-06-22 · Red Hat rating ImportantCost Management Metrics Operator Update
- Cost Management 4 registry.redhat.io/costmanagement/costmanagement-metrics-rhel9-operator
- RHSA-2026:26319 Released 2026-06-16 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Update Infrastructure 5.2 security update
- Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 registry.redhat.io/rhui5/cds-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhui5/haproxy-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhui5/installer-rhel9 +1
- RHSA-2026:22634 Released 2026-06-02 · Red Hat rating ImportantInsights proxy Container Image
- Red Hat Insights proxy 1.5 registry.redhat.io/insights-proxy/insights-proxy-container-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:20597 Released 2026-05-26 · Red Hat rating Moderateglibc security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) glibc-devel-2.34-270.el9_8, glibc-doc-2.34-270.el9_8, glibc-headers-2.34-270.el9_8 +2
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) glibc-2.34-270.el9_8, glibc-all-langpacks-2.34-270.el9_8, glibc-common-2.34-270.el9_8 +47
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) glibc-benchtests-2.34-270.el9_8, glibc-nss-devel-2.34-270.el9_8, glibc-static-2.34-270.el9_8 +2
- RHSA-2026:19061 Released 2026-05-19 · Red Hat rating Moderateglibc security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) glibc-devel-2.39-121.el10_2, glibc-doc-2.39-121.el10_2, glibc-locale-source-2.39-121.el10_2 +1
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) glibc-2.39-121.el10_2, glibc-all-langpacks-2.39-121.el10_2, glibc-common-2.39-121.el10_2 +47
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 10) glibc-benchtests-2.39-121.el10_2, glibc-nss-devel-2.39-121.el10_2, glibc-static-2.39-121.el10_2 +2
- RHSA-2026:7316 Released 2026-04-09 · Red Hat rating ModerateRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images glibc-2.42-11.1.hum1@aarch64, glibc-2.42-11.1.hum1@src, glibc-2.42-11.1.hum1@x86_64 +47
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:82304, RHSA-2026:82322, RHSA-2026:82888 |
| Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:82347, RHSA-2026:82354, RHSA-2026:82372, RHSA-2026:82857 |
| Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.20 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:72502 |
| Cost Management 4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:27998 |
| Red Hat Discovery 2 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:29197 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:19061 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:20597 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:19061 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:20597 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 10) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:19061 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:20597 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | Fixed | RHSA-2026:7316 |
| Red Hat Insights proxy 1.5 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:22634 |
| Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:26319, RHSA-2026:58981 |
Not affected: 3 products
- Cost Management 4
- Red Hat Hardened Images
- Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-4438
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-935r-rfch-9mr7
- 2026-10-14 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82304 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-14 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82322 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-14 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82372 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-14 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82354 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-14 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82347 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-15 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82857 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-15 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82888 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-16 Fix available: Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17, Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 · Red Hat
References
More GNU Glibc vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-04522 Glibc: buffer overflow in ld.so leading to privilege escalation KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
- TI-2015-00205 Heap-based buffer overflow in the __nss_hostname_digits_dots function in glibc 2.2, and… CVSS 2.0HIGH 10.0
- TI-2026-04772 scanf %mc off-by-one heap buffer overflow CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2022-07360 The deprecated compatibility function clnt_create in the sunrpc module of the GNU C… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2022-07359 The deprecated compatibility function svcunix_create in the sunrpc module of the GNU C… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2015-06274 Multiple stack-based buffer overflows in the (1) send_dg and (2) send_vc functions in the… CVSS 3.0HIGH 8.1
Sources
- CVE-2026-4438 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-4438 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-935r-rfch-9mr7 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-4438 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences