Dia: dia: stack buffer overflow in bus object via unvalidated handle count in project files

Summary

CVECVE-2026-77658
StatePUBLISHED
Assignerfedora
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-08-26 13:19:22 UTC
Updated2026-08-28 15:44:39 UTC
DescriptionA stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the Dia diagram editor when processing Network Bus objects from Dia XML project files. In objects/network/bus.c, bus_load() reads the number of bus handles from the file attribute "bus_handles" using attribute_num_data() without validating an upper bound: bus->num_handles = attribute_num_data(attr); When a bus handle is subsequently moved, bus_handle_moved() allocates two temporary arrays on the stack: parallel = (real *)g_alloca(num_handles * sizeof(real)); perp = (real *)g_alloca(num_handles * sizeof(real)); Because num_handles is fully attacker-controlled via the project file, sufficiently large values (for example 262144 or higher) cause g_alloca() to consume more stack space than the default thread stack limit (typically 8 MB on Linux), resulting in stack overflow, SIGSEGV, and potential stack frame / return-address corruption. An attacker can embed a Bus object with an excessive bus_handles count in a malicious .dia file. Exploitation requires the victim to open the file in Dia (file dialog, command line, or file association) and trigger handle manipulation (moving a bus handle), which exercises the vulnerable code path. The identical g_alloca pattern is present in objects/Misc/tree.c (copied from bus.c) and is likely vulnerable to the same class of attack via Tree objects. Affected versions: Dia 0.98.0 and earlier versions containing this code; issue confirmed on upstream master as of 2026-08-21. Upstream report: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/dia/-/issues/581

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.8 HIGH from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Problem Types: CWE-121 | CWE-121 Stack-based Buffer Overflow


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNACVSS7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA GNOME Dia affected 0.98.0 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-77658 [email protected] access.redhat.com
gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/dia/-/issues/581 [email protected] gitlab.gnome.org
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi [email protected] bugzilla.redhat.com
gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/dia/-/blob/master/objects/network/bus.c [email protected] gitlab.gnome.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: Red Hat would like to thank Robin "drzobin" Larsson for reporting this issue. (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2026-08-21T04:16:10.319ZReported to Red Hat.
CNA2026-08-21T00:00:00.000ZMade public.

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