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 the commit 63dbf6b3b9e6e781df1a6a64e609b10e23969681

Attack Vector Local

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required None

Attack Requirements None

User Interaction None

Vulnerable System Confidentiality Impact High

Vulnerable System Integrity Impact None

Vulnerable System Availability Impact None

Subsequent System Confidentiality Impact None

Subsequent System Integrity Impact None

Subsequent System Availability Impact None

No CVSS v3.1

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

No EPSS score available.

Exploitation none

Automatable no

Technical Impact partial

Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).

Vendor Product Default status Versions
GNU gzip unaffected
Version Status Constraints
0 affected ≤ 1.14

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Advisories

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Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.

Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

References
Link Providers
https://cert.pl/en/posts/2026/04/CVE-2026-41991/ cve-icon
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gzip.git/commit/?id=63dbf6b3b9e6e781df1a6a64e609b10e23969681 cve-icon
https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/ cve-icon
History

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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 the commit 63dbf6b3b9e6e781df1a6a64e609b10e23969681
Title Global Buffer Overflow in GNU gzip
Weaknesses CWE-126
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: CERT-PL

Published:

Updated: 2026-06-29T13:30:43.882Z

Reserved: 2026-04-23T08:06:09.511Z

Link: CVE-2026-41992

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-06-29T13:30:38.923Z

cve-icon NVD

No data.

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-06-29T14:00:05Z

Weaknesses