popt Off-by-One Vulnerability Allows Local Exec
CVE-2026-18739 Published on August 4, 2026
Popt-devel: popt-static: off-by-one in poptstuffargs
A flaw was found in popt, a command-line option parsing library. An off-by-one error in the poptStuffArgs function, when repeatedly called by a host application or through deep alias nesting, can lead to corruption of internal program data. This corruption could potentially enable a local attacker to execute arbitrary code if the host application then unsafely processes the altered data.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-18739 can be exploited with local system access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a small impact on availability.
Timeline
Reported to Red Hat.
Made public.
Weakness Type
What is a Memory Corruption Vulnerability?
The software writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Typically, this can result in corruption of data, a crash, or code execution. The software may modify an index or perform pointer arithmetic that references a memory location that is outside of the boundaries of the buffer. A subsequent write operation then produces undefined or unexpected results.
CVE-2026-18739 has been classified to as a Memory Corruption vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-18739
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