High severity · published Apr 29, 2026
CVE-2026-28221
Wazuh: Pre-auth stack-based buffer overflow in wazuh-remoted print_hex_string() due to signed char promotion on x86_64
8.2
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. From version 4.8.0 to before version 4.14.4, a stack-based buffer overflow exists in print_hex_string() in wazuh-remoted. The bug is triggered when formatting attacker-controlled bytes using sprintf(dst_buf + 2*i, "%.2x", src_buf[i]) on platforms where char is treated as signed and the compiled code sign-extends bytes before the variadic call. For input bytes such as 0xFF, the formatting can emit "ffffffff" (8 chars) instead of "ff" (2 chars), causing an out-of-bounds write past a fixed 2049-byte stack buffer. The vulnerable path is reachable remotely prior to any agent authentication/registration logic via TCP/1514 when an oversized length prefix causes the “unexpected message (hex)” diagnostic path to run. Additionally, the same unauthenticated oversized-message diagnostic path logs an attacker-controlled hex dump to /var/ossec/logs/ossec.log for each trigger, allowing remote log amplification that can degrade monitoring fidelity and consume disk/I/O. This log amplification is reachable even without triggering the sign-extension overflow (e.g., using bytes < 0x80). This issue has been patched in version 4.14.4.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 32% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
WA
wazuh · wazuh
>= 4.8.0, < 4.14.4 · source: vendor, NVD
Affected product
WA
wazuh
wazuh
More from wazuh
9.9
CVE-2025-24016
Remote code execution in Wazuh server
9.9
CVE-2026-30893
Wazuh cluster sync path traversal in decompress_files() enables arbitrary file write and code execution from authenticated cluster peer
9.8
CVE-2024-32038
Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response
9.8
CVE-2021-44079
In the wazuh-slack active response script in Wazuh 4.2.x before 4.2.5, untrusted user agents are passed to a curl command line, potentially resulting in remote code execution
9.3
CVE-2026-67308
Wazuh GitHub Actions Shell Injection via Fork Pull Request