CVE-2026-24857: bulk_extractor has Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-01-28 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-122

Description

`bulk_extractor` is a digital forensics exploitation tool. Starting in version 1.4, `bulk_extractor`’s embedded unrar code has a heap‑buffer‑overflow in the RAR PPM LZ decoding path. A crafted RAR inside a disk image causes an out‑of‑bounds write in `Unpack::CopyString`, leading to a crash under ASAN (and likely a crash or memory corruption in production builds). There's potential for using this for RCE. As of time of publication, no known patches are available.

Affected products

simsong bulk_extractor: from 1.4

References

https://github.com/simsong/bulk_extractor/security/advisories/GHSA-rh8m-9xrx-q64q
https://github.com/simsong/bulk_extractor/security/advisories/GHSA-rh8m-9xrx-q64q

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