Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-48111

Memory Safety in 7-Zip 9.21 – 26.01

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
05 June 2026
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0022 13th percentile
Risk Priority 36 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-48111 is a medium-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in 7-Zip 7-Zip. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 13th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. Versions 9.21 through 26.00 contain an off-by-one out-of-bounds read vulnerability in the ParseDepedencyExpression function of the UEFI firmware image parser(CPP/7zip/Archive/UefiHandler.cpp). The function validates an attacker-controlled opcode byte using > instead…

more

of >= against the element count of the 10-entry kExpressionCommands static array, allowing an opcode value of 10 to read one pointer slot (8 bytes on x64) past the end of the array in .rodata. The out-of-bounds value is then dereferenced as a const char * and passed through strlen and memcpy into the archive's Characts property, which may cause either a denial of service (access violation when the adjacent bytes do not form a valid readable pointer) or a minor information disclosure of an adjacent .rdata string literal into archive metadata. The vulnerability is reached automatically during IInArchive::Open() via the call path OpenFv/OpenCapsule → ParseVolume → ParseSections when processing a SECTION_DXE_DEPEX (0x13) or SECTION_PEI_DEPEX (0x1B) section whose first body byte is 0x0A, and the UEFI handler is enabled by default in stock 7z.dll with signature-based detection for both UEFIc and UEFIf formats. The outcome (crash vs. silent leak) is deterministic per build but linker-layout dependent, with no write primitive and no disclosure of heap data, secrets, or ASLR base addresses. Version 26.01 fixes the issue.

CWE(s)

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.
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.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-48092Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2026-48103Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2026-48102Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2026-48112Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2026-48104Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2023-40481Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2026-48095Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2025-53816Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2024-11477Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip
CVE-2025-11002Same product: 7-Zip 7-Zip

Affected Assets

7-zip
7-zip
9.21 — 26.01

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation directly finds out-of-bounds read flaws through static analysis, fuzzing, and dynamic bounds checks.

Secure engineering principles require bounds checking and memory-safe constructs that stop out-of-bounds reads from being introduced.

Process isolation confines the effects of an out-of-bounds read to the compromised process.

Input validation rejects malformed indices or lengths that would otherwise cause reads outside buffer bounds.

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 such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.

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.

finds

Security testing in development and acceptance includes fuzzing and static analysis that detect out-of-bounds read defects before release.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record evidence of an out-of-bounds read but does not prevent the weakness itself.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and bounds checking that directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

prevents

Application security requirements include explicit bounds and memory-safety specifications that mitigate buffer over-reads.

prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles require memory-safe design patterns and runtime protections against out-of-bounds access.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and mandate bounds-checked reads, eliminating CWE-125.

References