CVE-2026-32837
Description
A flaw was found in miniaudio. An attacker can exploit a heap out-of-bounds read vulnerability in the WAV BEXT metadata parser by processing a specially crafted WAV file. This vulnerability, caused by improper null-termination handling in the coding history field, allows for out-of-bounds reads past the allocated metadata pool. Successful exploitation can lead to application crashes or a denial of service.
Statement
This MODERATE vulnerability affects miniaudio and imhex in Red Hat Community Projects. A heap out-of-bounds read in the WAV BEXT parser is triggered by processing crafted WAV files. Exploitation requires user interaction to open the malicious file (UI:R) and local access. Impact is limited to availability through application crashes.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability
Technical Impact: Read Memory; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
The case of an omitted null character is the most dangerous of the possible issues. This will almost certainly result in information disclosure, and possibly a buffer overflow condition, which may be exploited to execute arbitrary code.
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Read Memory; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
If a null character is omitted from a string, then most string-copying functions will read data until they locate a null character, even outside of the intended boundaries of the string. This could: cause a crash due to a segmentation fault cause sensitive adjacent memory to be copied and sent to an outsider trigger a buffer overflow when the copy is being written to a fixed-size buffer.
Integrity,Availability
Technical Impact: Modify Memory; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
Misplaced null characters may result in any number of security problems. The biggest issue is a subset of buffer overflow, and write-what-where conditions, where data corruption occurs from the writing of a null character over valid data, or even instructions. A randomly placed null character may put the system into an undefined state, and therefore make it prone to crashing. A misplaced null character may corrupt other data in memory.
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control,Other
Technical Impact: Alter Execution Logic; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Should the null character corrupt the process flow, or affect a flag controlling access, it may lead to logical errors which allow for the execution of arbitrary code.
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