FreeBSD setcred Stack Buffer Overflow: Privilege Escalation (CVE-2026-45250)
CVE-2026-45250 Published on May 21, 2026

Stack buffer overflow via setcred(2)
The setcred(2) system call is only available to privileged users. However, before the privilege level of the caller is checked, the user-supplied list of supplementary groups is copied into a fixed-size kernel stack buffer without first validating its length. If the supplied list exceeds the capacity of that buffer, a stack buffer overflow occurs. Because the bounds check on the supplementary groups list occurs after the kernel stack buffer has already been written, an unprivileged local user may trigger the overflow without holding any special privilege. Successful exploitation may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the kernel, allowing an unprivileged local user to gain elevated privileges on the affected system.

Vendor Advisory NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-45250 is exploitable with local system access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
LOW
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

What is a Stack Overflow Vulnerability?

A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function).

CVE-2026-45250 has been classified to as a Stack Overflow vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-45250

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FreeBSD
 

Affected Versions

FreeBSD:

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.01%
Percentile
0.72%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.