Medium severity · published Apr 8, 2026
CVE-2026-32288
Unbounded allocation for old GNU sparse in archive/tar
5.5
CVSS
0.3%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
tar.Reader can allocate an unbounded amount of memory when reading a maliciously-crafted archive containing a large number of sparse regions encoded in the "old GNU sparse map" format.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.3% · higher than 21% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AR
archive/tar · Go standard library
before 1.25.9; 1.26.0-0 before 1.26.2 · source: vendor
GO
GO · Golang
before 1.25.9; 1.26.0 before 1.26.2 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-32288
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-32288
Patch
https://go.dev/cl/763766
Issue Tracking
https://go.dev/issue/78301
Mailing List
https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/0uYbvbPZRWU
Vendor Advisory
https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2026-4869
More from archive/tar
7.5
CVE-2022-2879
Unbounded memory consumption when reading headers in archive/tar