openSUSE 16 Security Update : gawk (openSUSE-SU-2026:21393-1)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 329299

Synopsis

The remote openSUSE host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote openSUSE 16 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the openSUSE-SU-2026:21393-1 advisory.

- CVE-2026-40467: use-after-free vulnerability within the do_getline_redir() routine could lead to a program crash (bsc#1271351).
- CVE-2026-40468: use-after-free vulnerability in gawk's io.c file could permit heap metadata manipulation and host memory exhaustion (bsc#1271352).
- CVE-2026-40553: buffer overflow in the ftype() routine of the readdir extension could trigger a program crash (bsc#1271354).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected gawk package.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 329299

File Name: openSUSE-2026-21393-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: SuSE Local Security Checks

Published: 7/24/2026

Updated: 7/24/2026

Supported Sensors: Continuous Assessment, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.3

Percentile: 53.69

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9.4

Temporal Score: 7

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-40468

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.1

Temporal Score: 7.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.1

Threat Score: 1.2

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:U

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-40553

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:novell:opensuse:16.0, p-cpe:/a:novell:opensuse:gawk

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, Host/SuSE/release, Host/SuSE/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 7/20/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/13/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-40467, CVE-2026-40468, CVE-2026-40553

Detections

Analytics