CVE-2026-81880
Received Received - Intake

Memory Corruption in radare2 PEF Loader

Publication date: 2026-09-22

Last updated on: 2026-09-22

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description
radare2 is a UNIX-like reverse engineering framework and command-line toolset. Prior to 6.2.0, radare2's Apple Preferred Executable Format loader was vulnerable because the PEF loader accepted relocSecCount values that were not bounded by the number of sections or complete relocation records in the input. The vulnerability is triggered by normal binary-format auto-detection of a small crafted Apple PEF file. The loader could perform up to 268,435,456 relocation-section iterations and repeated buffer operations after record offsets passed the end of the file. This can cause denial of service through excessive CPU consumption and prolonged processing. This issue is fixed in version 6.2.0.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-09-22
Last Modified
2026-09-22
Generated
2026-09-22
AI Q&A
2026-09-22
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-81880
EUVD
EUVD-2026-84467

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 2 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
radare2 radare2 6.2.0
radare2 radare2 to 6.1.9 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-400 The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
CWE-834 The product performs an iteration or loop without sufficiently limiting the number of times that the loop is executed.

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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-81880 is a vulnerability in radare2, a reverse engineering framework, affecting versions prior to 6.2.0. The issue is in the Apple Preferred Executable Format (PEF) loader, which accepts relocation section counts without proper validation. This allows crafted PEF files to trigger excessive CPU usage during processing, leading to denial of service.

Detection Guidance

To detect this vulnerability, monitor for excessive CPU usage when radare2 processes PEF files. Check for processes running radare2 with high CPU consumption during file analysis. Use system monitoring tools like top, htop, or ps to identify unusual resource consumption by radare2 processes.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can cause denial of service by consuming excessive CPU resources when processing a specially crafted PEF file. It may slow down or crash systems running vulnerable versions of radare2 during file analysis or auto-detection.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability primarily causes denial of service through excessive CPU consumption, which may impact system availability. It does not directly affect confidentiality or integrity of data. Compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA typically requires maintaining system availability and protecting data integrity and confidentiality. While this issue could disrupt services, it does not inherently violate these standards unless it leads to unauthorized data access or prolonged unavailability affecting regulated operations.

Mitigation Strategies

Immediately upgrade radare2 to version 6.2.0 or later to patch the vulnerability. Avoid opening untrusted PEF files until the upgrade is complete. Implement CPU-time limits in automated environments processing PEF files to prevent denial of service.

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