Passing too large an alignment to the memalign suite of functions (memalign, posix_memalign, aligned_alloc) in the GNU C Library version 2.30 to 2.42 may result in an integer overflow, which could consequently result in a heap corruption. Note that the attacker must have control over both, the size as well as the alignment arguments of the memalign function to be able to exploit this. The size parameter must be close enough to PTRDIFF_MAX so as to overflow size_t along with the large alignment argument. This limits the malicious inputs for the alignment for memalign to the range [1<<62+ 1, 1<<63] and exactly 1<<63 for posix_memalign and aligned_alloc. Typically the alignment argument passed to such functions is a known constrained quantity (e.g. page size, block size, struct sizes) and is not attacker controlled, because of which this may not be easily exploitable in practice. An application bug could potentially result in the input alignment being too large, e.g. due to a different buffer overflow or integer overflow in the application or its dependent libraries, but that is again an uncommon usage pattern given typical sources of alignments.
This page covers CVE-2026-0861 as tracked by Debian, for the package glibc. The fix is available in version 2.42-8; earlier versions remain affected.
This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.
The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-0861 is classified as CWE-190: Integer Overflow or Wraparound. Arithmetic produces a value too large for its type and wraps around, so a later size or bounds check passes when it should not.
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-0861 is recorded against 1 package.
Published on 14 January 2026 and last revised on 4 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.
security-tracker.debian.org (Advisory)
glibc has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:
These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-190: Integer Overflow or Wraparound) in other software:
Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:
Details
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected Packages
| Software | From version | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| glibc | — | 2.42-8 |
References
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