Apache Arrow: Potential use-after-free when reading IPC file with pre-buffering
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat.
Summary
Use After Free vulnerability in Apache Arrow C++. This issue affects Apache Arrow C++ from 15.0.0 through 23.0.0. It can be triggered when reading an Arrow IPC file (but not an IPC stream) with pre-buffering enabled, if the IPC file contains data with variadic buffers (such as Binary View and String View data). Depending on the number of variadic buffers in a record batch column and on the temporal sequence of multi-threaded IO, a write to a dangling pointer could occur. The value (a `std::shared_ptr<Buffer>` object) that is written to the dangling pointer is not under direct control of the attacker. Pre-buffering is disabled by default but can be enabled using a specific C++ API call (`RecordBatchFileReader::PreBufferMetadata`). The functionality is not exposed in language bindings (Python, Ruby, C GLib), so these bindings are not vulnerable. The most likely consequence of this issue would be random crashes or memory corruption when reading specific kinds of IPC files. If the application allows ingesting IPC files from untrusted sources, this could plausibly be exploited for denial of service. Inducing more targeted kinds of misbehavior (such as confidential data extraction from the running process) depends on memory allocation and multi-threaded IO temporal patterns that are unlikely to be easily controlled by an attacker. Advice for users of Arrow C++: 1. check whether you enable pre-buffering on the IPC file reader (using `RecordBatchFileReader::PreBufferMetadata`) 2. if so, either disable pre-buffering (which may have adverse performance consequences), or switch to Arrow 23.0.1 which is not vulnerable
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
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache | Apache Arrow | 15.0.0 – 23.0.0 | 23.0.1 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | pyarrow (PyPI) | 15.0.0 to before 23.0.1 | 23.0.1 | Patch available | GHSA-rgxp-2hwp-jwgg |
- Apache Arrow VendorApache Affected 15.0.0 – 23.0.0 Fixed in 23.0.1 Patch available CNA
- pyarrow (PyPI) Vendor— Affected 15.0.0 to before 23.0.1 Fixed in 23.0.1 Patch available GHSA-rgxp-2hwp-jwgg
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Apache Arrow (Apache Software Foundation) Fixed in 23.0.1
- Fix · GHSA-rgxp-2hwp-jwgg pyarrow (PyPI) Fixed in 23.0.1 Advisory →
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2026:61628 Released 2026-08-31 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference Server Model Optimization Tools 3.2.2 (CUDA)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 registry.redhat.io/rhaiis/model-opt-cuda-rhel9
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:61628 |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-25087
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-rgxp-2hwp-jwgg
References
Advisory 3
More Apache Arrow vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-79288 Out-of-bounds write in Google Brotli decoder KEVCVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.2
- TI-2024-35010 Apache Arrow R package: Arbitrary code execution when loading a malicious data file CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2024-27524 Apache Arrow Rust Object Store: AWS WebIdentityToken exposure in log files CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2019-09256 Missing initialization of resource in Apache Arrow CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2019-09254 Missing initialization of resource in Apache Arrow CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
Sources
- CVE-2026-25087 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-25087 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-rgxp-2hwp-jwgg · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-25087 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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