CVE-2026-112056
Description
A flaw was found in wv. When parsing a Microsoft Word document containing malformed stylesheet data, the library fails to properly validate style indexes, leading to a heap-based out-of-bounds read. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by enticing a user or automated service to open a specially crafted document, causing the application to crash and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
Statement
This vulnerability is rated Moderate rather than Important because exploitation requires user interaction to open an untrusted document and only results in process termination without enabling arbitrary code execution or data exposure. In Red Hat supported environments, the wv library is not deployed in default Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations, restricting exposure primarily to community builds or systems where document conversion packages have been explicitly added. The failure triggers an out-of-bounds read that halts the active process, confining the blast radius strictly to a denial of service for the parsing application.
Mitigation
Do not open untrusted .doc files / process with sandboxed converters.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
An attacker could get secret values such as cryptographic keys, PII, memory addresses, or other information that could be used in additional attacks.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
Out-of-bounds memory could contain memory addresses or other information that can be used to bypass ASLR and other protection mechanisms in order to improve the reliability of exploiting a separate weakness for code execution.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker could cause a segmentation fault or crash by causing memory to be read outside of the bounds of the buffer. This is especially likely when the code reads a variable amount of data and assumes that a sentinel exists to stop the read operation, such as a NUL in a string.
Other
Technical Impact: Varies by Context
The read operation could produce other undefined or unexpected results.
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