Heap-based Buffer Overflow in GNU diffutils

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-53910
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerCERT-PL
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-07-22 14:17:21 UTC
Updated2026-07-22 20:54:15 UTC
Descriptiondiff3 tool from GNU diffutils is vulnerable to a heap‑based buffer overflow due to multiple signed integer overflows in line‑mapping calculations. Incorrect arithmetic in mapping line ranges can result in corrupted values being used for memory allocation and loop bounds. When processing crafted diff output, these overflows may cause the application to allocate insufficient memory and subsequently perform out‑of‑bounds writes during internal processing.  An attacker who can control the output of the diff program used by diff3 (e.g. via --diff-program pointing to a malicious script) can trigger out-of-bounds writes, resulting in a crash and potentially remote code execution depending on the environment. This issue has been fixed in commit 9ff04d5b84743e331e80b589335a52c5480d1815

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v4.0 2.1 LOW from [email protected]

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Problem Types: CWE-190 | CWE-190 CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
4.0[email protected]Secondary2.1LOWCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L/E:X/C...
4.0CNACVSS2.1LOWCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L

CVSS v4.0 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
Present
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low
Sub Conf.
Low
Sub Integrity
Low
Sub Availability
Low

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA GNU Diffutils affected 3.12 custom Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/diffutils.git/commit [email protected] cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org
cert.pl/en/posts/2026/07/CVE-2026-53910 [email protected] cert.pl
cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/diffutils.git/commit [email protected] cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org
git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/diffutils.git [email protected] git.savannah.gnu.org
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Michał Majchrowicz (AFINE Team) (en)

CNA: Marcin Wyczechowski (AFINE Team) (en)

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