CVE-2026-9536
Description
A flaw was found in vtk. A heap-based buffer overflow in the vtkWindBladeReader component allows an attacker to cause an application crash and a Denial of Service (DoS) by supplying a specially crafted .wind file.
Statement
Red Hat rates this vulnerability as having a Moderate severity because exploitation requires user interaction to parse an untrusted .wind dataset, restricting the blast radius to a denial of service via application crash without impacting confidentiality or system integrity. The Visualization Toolkit is not shipped in default Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations, appearing only through supplementary or community packages such as EPEL. Systems remain unaffected unless users explicitly deploy VTK or consumer applications like ParaView and ingest untrusted simulation files.
Mitigation
Do not open untrusted .wind datasets in VTK-based applications (e.g., ParaView). No upstream fix is currently available; VTK has not delivered a fix for the vtkWindBladeReader FindVariableOffsets heap overflow.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Write operations could cause memory corruption. In some cases, an adversary can modify control data such as return addresses in order to execute unexpected code.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
Attempting to access out-of-range, invalid, or unauthorized memory could cause the product to crash.
Other
Technical Impact: Unexpected State
Subsequent write operations can produce undefined or unexpected results.
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