CVE-2026-45751

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Use-After-Free in Suricata Network Security Engine

Publication date: 2026-09-10

Last updated on: 2026-09-10

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description

Suricata is a network Intrusion Detection System, Intrusion Prevention System and Network Security Monitoring engine. Prior to versions 7.0.16 and 8.0.5, Suricata's inspection-buffer helper could leave an inspection pointer referencing freed memory after a chained transform caused the backing buffer to be reallocated. The issue is reached during a specific network traffic processing, and requires a specific but not malicious rule. Versions 7.0.16 and 8.0.5 contain a fix. As a workaround, avoid rules that chain `dotprefix` transform after another one.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-09-10

Last Modified

2026-09-10

Generated

2026-09-11

AI Q&A

2026-09-11

EPSS Evaluated

N/A

NVD

CVE-2026-45751

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
openinfosec	suricata	to 8.0.5 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-416	The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

Suricata is a network security tool that inspects traffic for threats. This vulnerability occurs when a specific processing sequence causes an inspection pointer to reference freed memory after a buffer is reallocated. It requires a particular rule setup but does not need malicious input to trigger.

Detection Guidance

Detection requires monitoring Suricata logs for crashes or errors during traffic processing. Check for segmentation faults or inspection buffer errors in logs. No specific commands are provided in the context.

Impact Analysis

This flaw could lead to a denial-of-service condition by crashing Suricata during network traffic processing. It does not allow data theft or unauthorized access but disrupts normal security monitoring operations.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Suricata to versions 7.0.16 or 8.0.5 or later. As a workaround, avoid rules that chain the dotprefix transform after another transform.

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