VulnerabilityPublished 15 Mar 2026Updated 1 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-3442: Red Hat Hardened Images · Out-of-bounds Read

Affects Red Hat Hardened ImagesSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.1 Medium.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 19:04 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.1Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 17% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

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

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 15 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 29 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

cwe-125

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Red Hat Hardened Imagesbinutils-main	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Hardened Imagesbinutils-main	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10binutils	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10gcc-toolset-15-binutils	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10gdb	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10mingw-binutils	Affected–	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Red Hat has released security updates for Red Hat Hardened Images that include patched binutils packages addressing CVE-2026-3442. Users should apply the updates from advisories RHSA-2026:33527 and RHSA-2026:39022 promptly to remediate this vulnerability. Detailed update instructions are available at https://images.redhat.com/. No additional mitigation steps are indicated by the vendor advisory.

Description

A flaw was found in GNU Binutils. This vulnerability, a heap-based buffer overflow, specifically an out-of-bounds read, exists in the bfd linker component. An attacker could exploit this by convincing a user to process a specially crafted malicious XCOFF object file. Successful exploitation may lead to the disclosure of sensitive information or cause the application to crash, resulting in an application level denial of service.

Impact

An attacker who convinces a user to process a malicious XCOFF object file could exploit this vulnerability to read out-of-bounds memory, potentially disclosing sensitive information. Additionally, exploitation may cause the application to crash, resulting in an application-level denial of service. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 6.1 (medium severity), reflecting the local attack vector with user interaction required, low attack complexity, no privileges required, and high confidentiality impact but no integrity impact.

Summary

This vulnerability (CVE-2026-3442) exists in the bfd linker component of GNU Binutils used in Red Hat Hardened Images. It is a heap-based buffer overflow caused by an out-of-bounds read when processing maliciously crafted XCOFF object files. Successful exploitation can disclose sensitive information or cause application-level denial of service via crashes. Red Hat has issued security advisories (RHSA-2026:33527 and RHSA-2026:39022) providing updated binutils RPMs (versions 2.45.1-5.1.hum1 and 2.46.1-1.hum1) that fix this vulnerability along with others. The vendor advisories confirm that patches are available and provide instructions for applying updates.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 14 Jul 2026, 07:56 UTC

Technical details

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