VulnerabilityPublished 7 Apr 2026Updated 1 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-5745: Red Hat Hardened Images · NULL Pointer Dereference

Affects Red Hat Hardened ImagesSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 06:59 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

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

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 5% 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:N/I:N/A:H

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

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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 7 Apr 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-476

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Red Hat Hardened Imageslibarchive-main	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10libarchive	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6libarchive	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7libarchive	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8libarchive	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9libarchive	Affected–	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Red Hat has released updated RPM packages for Red Hat Hardened Images including libarchive-3.8.7-1.hum1 that address this vulnerability. Users should apply these official updates as detailed in the Red Hat advisory (https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-5745) to remediate the issue. Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory. No additional mitigation steps are indicated.

Description

A flaw was found in libarchive. A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the ACL parsing logic, specifically within the archive_acl_from_text_nl() function. When processing a malformed ACL string (such as a bare "d" or "default" tag without subsequent fields), the function fails to perform adequate validation before advancing the pointer. An attacker can exploit this by providing a maliciously crafted archive, causing an application utilizing the libarchive API (such as bsdtar) to crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability can cause applications using libarchive to crash, resulting in denial of service. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity. The attack requires local access and user interaction. No known exploits are reported in the wild at this time.

Summary

This vulnerability is a NULL pointer dereference in libarchive's ACL parsing function archive_acl_from_text_nl(). Specifically, malformed ACL strings such as a bare "d" or "default" tag without required fields cause the function to advance a pointer without adequate validation, leading to a crash. This affects applications using libarchive APIs, including bsdtar, potentially causing denial of service. Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs have been updated to libarchive version 3.8.7-1.hum1 to fix this issue. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 score of 5.5 (medium severity) with local attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction needed, and impact limited to availability.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 4 May 2026, 01:55 UTC

Technical details

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