CVE-2026-84268: gnome gvfs Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-84268 is a high (CVSS 8.8) Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in gnome gvfs. EPSS estimates a 0.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 28.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 01-09-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 15-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A flaw was found in the SFTP backend in gvfs. When mounting a share and reading a file, a malicious SFTP server can cause read_reply() to process a length that exceeds the size requested by the client. The function does not verify the server-provided length against the allocated buffer size, causing the operation to write past the intended boundaries. This issue allows a malicious server to corrupt adjacent heap memory in the gvfsd-sftp process, resulting in a denial of service as the process aborts upon detecting the heap corruption or potentially allowing arbitrary code execution.

• CWE-122Heap-based Buffer OverflowA heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc().