Vulnerability Description
Calling tdelete on a sufficiently deep tree in the GNU C Library version 2.1 to 2.44 may write one pointer past the end of an alloca-allocated array on the stack, which may crash the application. The tdelete implementation keeps an explicit stack of parent nodes for rebalancing, which is grown as needed while descending the tree. Two rebalancing branches push an additional entry without checking the capacity, and write past the array when the stack is exactly full. Triggering this requires a node at a depth of exactly 40 (or 40 plus a multiple of 20), which implies a tree with at least a million nodes, so an attacker must drive a large number of insertions and deletions through an application that uses tsearch and tdelete. The written value is a pointer into a tree node and is not directly attacker controlled. No affected application in common distributions has been identified.
CVSS Score
MEDIUM
Related Weaknesses (CWE)
References
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=34506
- https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob_plain;f=advisories/GLIBC-SA-2026-
FAQ
What is CVE-2026-19542?
CVE-2026-19542 is a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.6 (MEDIUM). Calling tdelete on a sufficiently deep tree in the GNU C Library version 2.1 to 2.44 may write one pointer past the end of an alloca-allocated array on the stack, which may crash the application. The...
How severe is CVE-2026-19542?
CVE-2026-19542 has been rated MEDIUM with a CVSS base score of 5.6/10. Review the CVSS metrics above for detailed severity breakdown.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-19542?
Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Review vendor security bulletins for remediation guidance.