CVE-2026-42250
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Off-by-One Write in bzip2recover Utility

Publication date: 2026-05-28

Last updated on: 2026-06-05

Assigner: CERT.PL

Description
bzip2 contains an off‑by‑one error in the bzip2recover utility. When processing a specially crafted file, the application performs an out‑of‑bounds write to a global buffer, resulting in memory corruption and a crash (denial of service). This issue was fixed in bzip2 patch 35d122a3df8b0cc4082a4d89fdc6ee99f375fe67
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Meta Information
Published
2026-05-28
Last Modified
2026-06-05
Generated
2026-06-18
AI Q&A
2026-05-28
EPSS Evaluated
2026-06-16
NVD
CVE-2026-42250
EUVD
EUVD-2026-32898
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
the_bzip2_project bzip2 1.0.9
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-787 The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.
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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is an off-by-one error in the bzip2recover utility of the bzip2 software. When the utility processes a specially crafted file, it performs an out-of-bounds write to a global buffer. This causes memory corruption and can lead to the application crashing, resulting in a denial of service.

Compliance Impact

The provided information does not specify any direct impact of the CVE-2026-42250 vulnerability on compliance with common standards and regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability affects the bzip2recover utility in bzip2 versions prior to 1.0.9. Detection involves identifying if vulnerable versions of bzip2 are installed on your system.

You can check the installed bzip2 version using the following command:

  • bzip2recover --version

If the version is earlier than 1.0.9, your system is vulnerable.

Additionally, monitoring for crashes or denial of service events related to bzip2recover when processing files may indicate exploitation attempts.

Impact Analysis

The impact of this vulnerability is primarily a denial of service. An attacker could cause the bzip2recover utility to crash by providing a specially crafted file, which leads to memory corruption due to an out-of-bounds write.

Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, update the bzip2 package to version 1.0.9 or later, where the off-by-one error in the bzip2recover utility has been fixed.

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