CVE-2026-72854

medium

Description

msgpack_unpacker_expand_buffer in src/unpack.c, reached through the public msgpack_unpacker_reserve_buffer API, computes its new buffer size using an unchecked size_t addition of the requested size and the amount already used. The doubling loop guards its own multiplication against overflow, but the addition in the loop condition is unguarded, so a request near SIZE_MAX wraps: the loop condition is already satisfied, the allocation is performed at the small pre-wrap size, and the function returns true. The caller is told the requested capacity was reserved when it was not, so a subsequent write of the requested length overflows the heap buffer. The library's own example/lib_buffer_unpack.c demonstrates the reserve-then-write pattern, and its defensive assert comparing capacity against the request is compiled out under NDEBUG. msgpack-c's own decode entry points do not derive the reservation size from untrusted input, so reaching this requires an integration that passes an attacker-influenced length to the reservation API, such as a length-prefixed streaming transport.

References

https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/msgpack-c-integer-overflow-in-msgpack-unpacker-expand-buffer-causes-a-false-success-undersized-reservation

https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c/issues/1181

https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c/blob/c-7.0.1/src/unpack.c#L429-L502

https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c/blob/c-7.0.1/include/msgpack/unpack.h#L219-L223

https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c/blob/c-7.0.1/example/lib_buffer_unpack.c

https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-08-20

Updated: 2026-08-20

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 4.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:P

Severity: Medium

CVSS v3

Base Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L

Severity: Medium

CVSS v4

Base Score: 5.8

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Severity: Medium

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00114