CVE-2026-121968
Description
A flaw was found in netrek-client-cow. An attacker controlling a server or intercepting network traffic can trigger an out-of-bounds read by sending a specially crafted message containing an invalid recipient index. This issue causes the client application to crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
Statement
This flaw is assessed as having a Moderate severity because exploitation requires an interactive connection to an untrusted or compromised game server, and the impact is restricted to terminating the client application. The package operates in unprivileged user space without administrative privileges, preventing broader host disruption or compromise of data confidentiality and integrity. Furthermore, this component is not included or enabled in supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
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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