High severity · published Jun 29, 2026
CVE-2026-41992
Global Buffer Overflow in GNU gzip
7.5
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
GNU gzip contains a global buffer overflow vulnerability in the LZH decompression logic caused by improper reuse of shared global state between different decompression formats within a single execution. GNU gzip maintains a global array that is shared across the LZ77, LZW, and LZH decompression routines and is not reinitialized between files processed in the same invocation.
By decompressing a specially crafted LZW file followed by a specially crafted LZH file in a single gzip -d command, an attacker can poison the shared global state and subsequently trigger an out‑of‑bounds read in the LZH decoder. The LZH decompression logic follows stale values left in the shared array, causing reads past the end of the allocated global buffer.
This issue has been fixed in commits 63dbf6b3b9e6e781df1a6a64e609b10e23969681 and e7378c2d421be6a286922374425680bbe9ad8b7d.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.6% · higher than 49% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
GZ
gzip · GNU
through 1.14 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41992
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-41992
Broken Link
https://cert.pl/en/posts/2026/04/CVE-2026-41991/
Patch
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gzip.git/commit/?id=63dbf6b3b9e6e781df1a6a64e609b10e23969681
cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gzip.git/commit/?id=e7378c2d421be6a286922374425680bbe9ad8b7d
Product
https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/
www.openwall.com
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/23/1
www.openwall.com
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/25/1
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