Heap buffer overflow in gawk
Priority LOW 23CWE-190Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · Low
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
Integer overflow vulnerability has been found in "builtin.c" program file of gawk (do_sub() routine). This issue could be used to overwrite gawk heap metadata and objects causing the program to crash. It affects 32-bit builds of gawk in versions 5.4.0 and below.
Why it matters now
Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00213 11th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Red Hat: 2 advisoriesRed Hat: 1 fixed, 1 without a fix
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 2 advisories
- RHSA-2026:49661 Released 2026-08-03 · Red Hat rating ModerateRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update
- Red Hat Hardened Images gawk-5.4.1-1.hum1@aarch64, gawk-5.4.1-1.hum1@src, gawk-5.4.1-1.hum1@x86_64 +6
- RHSA-2026:40041 Released 2026-07-15 · Red Hat rating ModerateRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update
- Red Hat Hardened Images gawk-5.4.0-3.1.hum1@aarch64, gawk-5.4.0-3.1.hum1@src, gawk-5.4.0-3.1.hum1@x86_64 +6
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 planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | Fixed | RHSA-2026:40041, RHSA-2026:49661 |
Not affected: 6 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-40469
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-5x2x-26c9-4q5x
- 2026-10-16 Affected versions changed · 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-2026-40469 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-40469 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-5x2x-26c9-4q5x · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-40469 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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