Amazon Linux 2023 : python3-rpm, rpm, rpm-apidocs (ALAS2023-2026-1991)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 332015

Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux 2023 host is missing a security update.

Description

It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ALAS2023-2026-1991 advisory.

A heap buffer overflow exists in RPM's NDB database backend (lib/backend/ndb/rpmpkg.c) due to unchecked 32-bit arithmetic when parsing the slot table. The slotnpages value is read directly from the on-disk NDB header and used in a 32-bit multiplication (slotnpages * (PAGE_SIZE / SLOT_SIZE)) to size a heap allocation. A crafted Packages.db can supply a slotnpages value that wraps this product to a small number, causing xcalloc to allocate an undersized buffer. The subsequent loop iterates over the full unwrapped page count, writing pkgslot entries past the heap boundary before per-slot validation runs. Exploitation requires the victim to open a crafted NDB database file with RPM tooling, and NDB is not the default backend in Fedora or RHEL (both default to sqlite). (CVE-2026-44605)

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

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

Solution

Run 'dnf update rpm --releasever 2023.12.20260803' or or 'dnf update --advisory ALAS2023-2026-1991 --releasever 2023.12.20260803' to update your system.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 332015

File Name: al2023_ALAS2023-2026-1991.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Amazon Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 8/4/2026

Updated: 8/4/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Nessus Agent, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.9

Percentile: 58.14

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 5.5

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-44605

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.5

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:amazon:linux:2023, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:python3-rpm-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:python3-rpm, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-apidocs, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-build-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-build-libs-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-build-libs, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-build, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-cron, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-debugsource, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-devel-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-libs-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-libs, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-audit-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-audit, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-fapolicyd-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-fapolicyd, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-ima-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-ima, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-prioreset-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-prioreset, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-selinux-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-selinux, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-syslog-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-syslog, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-systemd-inhibit-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-plugin-systemd-inhibit, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-sign-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-sign-libs-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-sign-libs, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm-sign, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:rpm

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 8/4/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/16/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-44605

Detections

Analytics