CVE-2026-48142
Description
A flaw was found in NGINX. Remote, unauthenticated attackers can exploit a vulnerability in the ngx_http_charset_module when specific charset configurations are present. This can lead to a heap buffer over-read, potentially causing limited disclosure of memory or a denial of service by restarting the NGINX worker process.
Mitigation
To mitigate this issue, avoid configuring NGINX with both `source_charset utf-8;` and an additional `charset` directive within the same location block in the `ngx_http_charset_module`. If these directives are not essential for your NGINX deployment, removing one or both will prevent the vulnerability from being exploited. After modifying the NGINX configuration, reload the NGINX service using `systemctl reload nginx`. This action may temporarily interrupt active connections.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.8 | N/A | 4.8 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low | N/A | Low |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L
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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