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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-66485: GNU cpio · Excessive Memory Allocation

Affects GNU cpioSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.6 Medium.

Data as of 7 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
4.6Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 8% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 10 Aug 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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 7 Nov 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
GNUcpioAffected
  • <=2.15
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

A fix for this vulnerability is available and has been committed (commit 3cd514031371d8aeeaf2048aa10103e02831aaa9). Users should update to the fixed version of GNU cpio to remediate this issue. Patch status is not explicitly confirmed in the advisory, so verify the vendor repository or official GNU cpio sources for the fixed version. Until patched, avoid extracting untrusted cpio archives with potentially long nested pathnames.

Description

GNU cpio is vulnerable to an uncontrolled memory allocation in the make_path function at src/makepath.c. The function uses alloca to allocate stack memory based on the length of argpath, which is derived from an archive-controlled pathname during extraction. A malicious cpio archive containing a sufficiently long nested pathname causes an unbounded stack allocation, resulting in a stack overflow and crash of the cpio process. An attacker who can supply a crafted cpio archive to a victim who extracts it can cause a denial of service. This issue has been fixed in commit 3cd514031371d8aeeaf2048aa10103e02831aaa9

References

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