CVE-2026-41990
Memory Safety in Gnupg Libgcrypt 1.12.0 – 1.12.2
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:LCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2026-41990 is a medium-severity Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787) vulnerability in Gnupg Libgcrypt. Its CVSS base score is 4.0 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Security Account Manager (T1003.002); ranked at the 7th 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-2026-41990 affects Libgcrypt versions before 1.12.2, a cryptographic library used in GnuPG and related software. The vulnerability arises during Dilithium signing operations, where writes to a static array lack a bounds check, leading to a CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write) condition. Although the writes do not involve attacker-controlled data, this flaw has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.0 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L), indicating low severity with primarily local impact.
A local attacker with no privileges can potentially exploit this vulnerability, but it requires high attack complexity and provides no user interaction vector. Successful exploitation could result in low-level integrity and availability disruptions, such as minor data corruption or denial of specific signing operations, though the absence of attacker-controlled input limits the practical scope and impact.
Advisories referenced in the GnuPG development tracker (T8208), gnupg-announce mailing list, and oss-security discussion recommend updating to Libgcrypt 1.12.2, which includes the necessary bounds checks to prevent the out-of-bounds writes during Dilithium signing.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-25193
Vulnerability Data
Libgcrypt before 1.12.2 mishandles Dilithium signing. Writes to a static array lack a bounds check but do not use attacker-controlled data.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and bounds checks) finds out-of-bounds write flaws before deployment.
Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.
Input validation can structurally reject or sanitize data that would otherwise trigger an out-of-bounds write.
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.
Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover out-of-bounds write flaws so they can be remediated.
Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.
Secure-development practices (static analysis, bounds checking, code review) are the primary means of preventing out-of-bounds writes.
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.