CVE-2026-32288: CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Go standard library archive/tar
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.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
The vulnerability CVE-2026-32288 involves the Go standard library archive/tar package, specifically the tar.Reader functionality. When reading a tar archive with a large number of sparse regions encoded in the old GNU sparse map format, tar.Reader can allocate memory without bounds. This results in uncontrolled resource consumption (CWE-400), potentially causing denial of service by exhausting system memory. The issue affects Go versions up to 1.26.0-0. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.5, indicating medium severity, with attack vector local, low attack complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required, and impact limited to availability.
Potential Impact
The impact of this vulnerability is denial of service due to excessive memory allocation when processing specially crafted tar archives. There is no confidentiality or integrity impact reported. The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction to trigger. No known exploits are reported in the wild.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until a fix is available, avoid processing untrusted tar archives that may use the old GNU sparse map format. Monitor official Go project communications for updates or patches addressing this issue.
CVE-2026-32288: CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Go standard library archive/tar
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.
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
The vulnerability CVE-2026-32288 involves the Go standard library archive/tar package, specifically the tar.Reader functionality. When reading a tar archive with a large number of sparse regions encoded in the old GNU sparse map format, tar.Reader can allocate memory without bounds. This results in uncontrolled resource consumption (CWE-400), potentially causing denial of service by exhausting system memory. The issue affects Go versions up to 1.26.0-0. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.5, indicating medium severity, with attack vector local, low attack complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required, and impact limited to availability.
Potential Impact
The impact of this vulnerability is denial of service due to excessive memory allocation when processing specially crafted tar archives. There is no confidentiality or integrity impact reported. The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction to trigger. No known exploits are reported in the wild.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until a fix is available, avoid processing untrusted tar archives that may use the old GNU sparse map format. Monitor official Go project communications for updates or patches addressing this issue.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- Go
- Date Reserved
- 2026-03-11T16:38:46.557Z
- Cvss Version
- null
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
Threat ID: 69d5da2d43e2781badfbe696
Added to database: 4/8/2026, 4:31:41 AM
Last enriched: 4/15/2026, 11:51:46 AM
Last updated: 5/23/2026, 9:04:46 PM
Views: 70
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