CVE-2026-28221: Wazuh: Pre-auth stack-based buffer overflow in wazuh-remoted print_hex_string() due to signed char promotion on x86_64

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-28221 is a high (CVSS 8.2) Stack-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in wazuh. EPSS estimates a 0.57% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 46.5% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Timeline

1. 29-04-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 29-04-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. From version 4.8.0 to before version 4.14.4, a stack-based buffer overflow exists in print_hex_string() in wazuh-remoted. The bug is triggered when formatting attacker-controlled bytes using sprintf(dst_buf + 2*i, "%.2x", src_buf[i]) on platforms where char is treated as signed and the compiled code sign-extends bytes before the variadic call. For input bytes such as 0xFF, the formatting can emit "ffffffff" (8 chars) instead of "ff" (2 chars), causing an out-of-bounds write past a fixed 2049-byte stack buffer. The vulnerable path is reachable remotely prior to any agent authentication/registration logic via TCP/1514 when an oversized length prefix causes the “unexpected message (hex)” diagnostic path to run. Additionally, the same unauthenticated oversized-message diagnostic path logs an attacker-controlled hex dump to /var/ossec/logs/ossec.log for each trigger, allowing remote log amplification that can degrade monitoring fidelity and consume disk/I/O. This log amplification is reachable even without triggering the sign-extension overflow (e.g., using bytes < 0x80). This issue has been patched in version 4.14.4.

• CWE-121Stack-based Buffer OverflowA stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function).
• CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionThe product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.