CVE-2026-40200
8.1musl · libc
A stack-based memory corruption vulnerability exists in musl libc 0.7.10 through 1.2.6, triggered during qsort operations on extremely large arrays.
Executive summary
A stack-based memory corruption vulnerability in musl libc poses a high risk of system compromise or crash when processing exceptionally large datasets.
Vulnerability
This is a stack-based memory corruption flaw caused by an incorrect implementation of double-word primitives during the qsort operation. The vulnerability is exploitable by an unauthenticated local attacker, provided they can trigger the processing of an array containing over seven million elements.
Business impact
The vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 8.1, reflecting a high severity due to its potential for full system compromise, including confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts. While the requirement to process massive arrays makes exploitation difficult, successful execution could lead to arbitrary code execution or total service failure, causing significant operational disruption in environments relying on this library.
Remediation
Immediate Action: Review your software inventory for applications linked against the affected versions of musl libc and apply vendor-provided security patches as they become available.
Proactive Monitoring: Monitor system logs for unexpected crashes or segmentation faults in applications that perform large-scale sorting operations.
Compensating Controls: Limit the size of inputs processed by sorting functions where possible and implement strict resource constraints to prevent the processing of arrays that exceed the threshold required to trigger this flaw.
Exploitation status
Public Exploit Available: No — there is no confirmed public exploit available.
Analyst recommendation
Given the high CVSS score and the critical nature of the musl library, organizations should prioritize auditing their dependency chains to identify impacted systems. Although the exploitability is constrained by the size of the input, the potential for total system compromise necessitates immediate patching once a fix is released by the respective distribution or upstream maintainers.