Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-41989

Memory Safety in Gnupg Libgcrypt 1.8.8 – 1.10.4

Memory Safety
Published
23 April 2026
Modified
14 July 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 6.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0018 8th percentile
Risk Priority 48 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-41989 is a medium-severity Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787) vulnerability in Gnupg Libgcrypt. Its CVSS base score is 6.7 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2026-41989 is a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-787) affecting Libgcrypt versions before 1.12.2. The flaw occurs when the gcry_pk_decrypt function processes crafted ECDH ciphertext, potentially leading to a denial of service. Published on 2026-04-23, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.7 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H), highlighting medium severity with impacts primarily on integrity and availability.

Exploitation requires local access (AV:L) and high attack complexity (AC:H), but no privileges (PR:N), user interaction (UI:N), or scope change (S:U). An unprivileged local attacker could supply malformed ECDH ciphertext to trigger the buffer overflow in gcry_pk_decrypt, achieving high integrity violation (I:H)—such as memory corruption—and high availability disruption (A:H), like application crashes or denial of service, with no confidentiality impact (C:N).

Advisories recommend upgrading to Libgcrypt 1.12.2, which addresses the issue. Detailed information is available in the GnuPG development ticket at https://dev.gnupg.org/T8211, the GnuPG announce mailing list post at https://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-announce/2026q2/000503.html, and the OSS-Security mailing list discussion at https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/04/21/1.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Libgcrypt before 1.12.2 sometimes allows a heap-based buffer overflow and denial of service via crafted ECDH ciphertext to gcry_pk_decrypt.

CWE(s)
CWE-787

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-24201Shared CWE-787
CVE-2025-24139Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-27373Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-44375Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-20501Shared CWE-787
CVE-2023-40845Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-7993Shared CWE-787
CVE-2023-3732Shared CWE-787
CVE-2023-21508Shared CWE-787
CVE-2023-44808Shared CWE-787

Affected Assets

gnupg
libgcrypt
1.8.8 — 1.10.4 · 1.11.0 — 1.11.3 · 1.12.0 — 1.12.2

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and bounds checks) finds out-of-bounds write flaws before deployment.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Input validation can structurally reject or sanitize data that would otherwise trigger an out-of-bounds write.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the exploitability and blast radius of a successful out-of-bounds write.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices (static analysis, bounds checking, code review) are the primary means of preventing out-of-bounds writes.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover out-of-bounds write flaws so they can be remediated.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development and acceptance can detect and prevent out-of-bounds write defects.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates practices that prevent out-of-bounds writes.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify bounds-checking and safe memory handling.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles reduce the likelihood of buffer overflows.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding directly addresses out-of-bounds writes through language choice and coding standards.

A.8.32 Change management partial match
prevents

Change management can enforce review gates that catch unsafe memory operations before deployment.

References