Stack-based out-of-bounds write in tdelete during tree rebalancing
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · Low
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 12 fixed, 4 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
Calling tdelete on a sufficiently deep tree in the GNU C Library version 2.1 to 2.44 may write one pointer past the end of an alloca-allocated array on the stack, which may crash the application. The tdelete implementation keeps an explicit stack of parent nodes for rebalancing, which is grown as needed while descending the tree. Two rebalancing branches push an additional entry without checking the capacity, and write past the array when the stack is exactly full. Triggering this requires a node at a depth of exactly 40 (or 40 plus a multiple of 20), which implies a tree with at least a million nodes, so an attacker must drive a large number of insertions and deletions through an application that uses tsearch and tdelete. The written value is a pointer into a tree node and is not directly attacker controlled. No affected application in common distributions has been identified.
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 6 advisories
- RHSA-2026:95264 Released 2026-11-04 · Red Hat rating CriticalCost Management Metrics Operator Update
- Cost Management 4 registry.redhat.io/costmanagement/costmanagement-metrics-rhel9-operator
- RHSA-2026:82939 Released 2026-10-14 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Update Infrastructure 5.3 security update
- Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 registry.redhat.io/rhui5/cds-kubernetes-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhui5/cds-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhui5/haproxy-rhel9 +2
- RHSA-2026:80798 Released 2026-10-12 · Red Hat rating Moderateglibc security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) compat-libpthread-nonshared-2.28-251.el8_10.48, glibc-utils-2.28-251.el8_10.48
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) glibc-2.28-251.el8_10.48, glibc-all-langpacks-2.28-251.el8_10.48, glibc-common-2.28-251.el8_10.48 +47
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) glibc-benchtests-2.28-251.el8_10.48, glibc-nss-devel-2.28-251.el8_10.48, glibc-static-2.28-251.el8_10.48 +1
Show 3 more Red Hat advisories
- RHSA-2026:79281 Released 2026-10-08 · Red Hat rating Moderateglibc security, bug fix, and enhancement update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) glibc-devel-2.34-283.el9_8, glibc-doc-2.34-283.el9_8, glibc-headers-2.34-283.el9_8 +2
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) glibc-2.34-283.el9_8, glibc-all-langpacks-2.34-283.el9_8, glibc-common-2.34-283.el9_8 +47
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) glibc-benchtests-2.34-283.el9_8, glibc-nss-devel-2.34-283.el9_8, glibc-static-2.34-283.el9_8 +2
- RHSA-2026:76781 Released 2026-10-08 · Red Hat rating Moderateglibc security, bug fix, and enhancement update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) glibc-devel-2.39-142.el10_2, glibc-doc-2.39-142.el10_2, glibc-locale-source-2.39-142.el10_2 +1
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) glibc-2.39-142.el10_2, glibc-all-langpacks-2.39-142.el10_2, glibc-common-2.39-142.el10_2 +47
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 10) glibc-benchtests-2.39-142.el10_2, glibc-nss-devel-2.39-142.el10_2, glibc-static-2.39-142.el10_2 +2
- RHSA-2026:59721 Released 2026-08-26 · Red Hat rating ModerateRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update
- Red Hat Hardened Images compat-libpthread-nonshared-2.43-8.2.hum1@aarch64, compat-libpthread-nonshared-2.43-8.2.hum1@x86_64, glibc-2.43-8.2.hum1@aarch64 +47
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. 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 OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Cost Management 4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:95264 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:76781 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:80798 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:79281 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:76781 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:80798 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:79281 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:80798 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 10) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:76781 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2026:79281 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | Fixed | RHSA-2026:59721 |
| Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:82939 |
Not affected: 2 products
- Cost Management 4
- Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-19542
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-hhcv-vc8h-vmrg
- 2026-10-09 Fix available: RHSA-2026:76781 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-09 Fix available: RHSA-2026:79281 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-09 Fix available: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10), Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9), Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) +3 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-13 Fix available: RHSA-2026:80798 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-13 Fix available: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8), Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8), Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) · Red Hat
- 2026-10-16 Fix available: RHSA-2026:82939 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-16 Fix available: Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-31 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 Fix available: Cost Management 4 · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 Fix available: RHSA-2026:95264 · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
More GNU vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-19388 telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root"… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-05975 GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-025 processes trailing strings after certain malformed… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-05157 GNU Bash through 4.3 processes trailing strings after function definitions in the values… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-05164 GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-026 does not properly parse function definitions in the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2023-04522 Glibc: buffer overflow in ld.so leading to privilege escalation KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
- TI-2009-03392 The TLS protocol, and the SSL protocol 3.0 and possibly earlier, as used in Microsoft… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-19542 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-19542 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-hhcv-vc8h-vmrg · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-19542 · 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