GHSL-2026-120: 7-Zip SquashFS BlockToNode uninitialized heap read
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · None · Low
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. Versions 9.18 through 26.00 contain an uninitialized heap read in the SquashFS archive handler caused by a sparsely populated index array. In the SquashFS handler, _blockToNode is allocated with capacity for every metadata block but populated only when an inode crosses a block boundary, so a crafted image with few inodes spanning many blocks leaves most slots holding raw heap contents (the underlying allocator does not zero-initialize POD storage). When OpenDir looks up an attacker-influenced blockIndex (derived from the RootInode superblock field), it reads two of these uninitialized slots and passes them as the left/right bounds of a binary search over _nodesPos, which dereferences the midpoint without bounds checking; if the resulting value happens to match the search key, the returned index is used to read a full node struct from _nodes whose fields feed further directory parsing, forming a chained OOB read primitive that is heap-layout-dependent and not reliably triggerable. The SquashFS handler is enabled by default in stock 7z.dll and the issue triggers during Open() with no interaction beyond opening the file; impact is denial of service from wild-pointer dereference and potential heap information disclosure, with no write primitive. Version 26.01 fixes the issue.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- 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
- Fix · CNA 7-Zip (mcmilk) Fixed in 26.01
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-48104
References
More mcmilk vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-79288 Out-of-bounds write in Google Brotli decoder KEVCVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.2
- TI-2026-35535 GHSL-2026-140_7-Zip: 7-Zip has a heap buffer overflow via NTFS compressed stream buffer under-allocation CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-35532 7-Zip SquashFS Fragment Offset Overflow (GHSL-2026-116) CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.1
- TI-2026-35551 GHSL-2026-121 7-Zip UEFI DEPEX OOB Read CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
- TI-2026-35543 GHSL-2026-119 7-Zip WIM SecurityId OOB read CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
- TI-2026-35542 GHSL-2026-118: 7-Zip UDF Field OOB Read CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 4.3
Sources
- CVE-2026-48104 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-48104 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- CVE-2026-48104 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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