CVE-2026-58469: GNU Wget 1.25.0 Heap Buffer Underread via Metalink URL Parsing

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-07-07 · updated 2026-10-25
Weakness: CWE-125

Description

GNU Wget through 1.25.0, fixed in commit 37a40fc, contains a heap buffer underread vulnerability in the clean_metalink_string() function within src/metalink.c that allows a malicious server to trigger memory corruption by serving a Metalink document containing a whitespace-only URL. Attackers can cause the function to decrement a pointer past the start of the buffer when processing an all-whitespace Metalink URL, potentially leading to abnormal program behavior.

Affected products

gnuwget wget: through 1.25.0

References

https://gitlab.com/gnuwget/wget/-/commit/37a40fcb450153f69537c7cbc2a7a4fb0b6f7826
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/gnu-wget-heap-buffer-underread-via-metalink-url-parsing

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