Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-19548

medium Nessus Plugin ID 334929

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- Multiple Use-After-Free vulnerabilities were found in the add_archive_element function in ld/ldmain.c of the GNU linker (ld), a component of binutils. The root cause is that plugin_maybe_claim() in ld/plugin.c frees the original BFD object via bfd_close/_bfd_delete_bfd when entry->the_bfd->my_archive == NULL, but the caller retains both the original abfd parameter and a shallow copy (orig_input.the_bfd) as dangling pointers. These dangling pointers are subsequently dereferenced at three distinct locations in add_archive_element: 1. Line ~1442: accessing abfd->my_archive via bfd_usrdata(abfd->my_archive) 2. Line ~1493: multiple accesses to abfd and abfd->my_archive in a conditional check and bfd_get_filename call 3.
Line ~1525: dereferencing the shallow copy orig_input.the_bfd->my_archive in trace/verbose logging The vulnerability is triggered when LTO plugins are active (link_info.lto_plugin_active is true) and the input object has abfd->my_archive == NULL, which is a valid state for standalone object files. Red Hat builds binutils with --enable-plugins and --enable-lto, confirming the vulnerable code path is compiled in and reachable. An attacker who can supply a crafted object or archive file to a build process using LTO- enabled linking could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (linker crash via segmentation fault). Arbitrary code execution is theoretically possible through heap manipulation but is substantially mitigated by hardening measures including stack protector, FORTIFY_SOURCE, ASLR, and PIE. The attack surface is limited to build-time environments the linker is a development tool not exposed in production runtime. The most realistic exploitation scenario is a supply chain attack introducing a crafted object file as a build dependency in CI/CD pipelines or development environments. (CVE-2026-19548)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 334929

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_19548.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/12/2026

Updated: 8/12/2026

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.72

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.4

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-19548

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 5.1

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:binutils-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:binutils-gold, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-14-binutils-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-14-binutils-gold, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-14-binutils-gprofng, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-14-binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-15-binutils-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-15-binutils-gold, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-15-binutils-gprofng, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-15-binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-16-binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mingw-binutils-generic, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mingw-binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mingw32-binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mingw64-binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:binutils-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:binutils-gold, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-14-binutils-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-14-binutils-gold, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-14-binutils-gprofng, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-14-binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-15-binutils-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-15-binutils-gold, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-15-binutils-gprofng, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-15-binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-16-binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mingw-binutils-generic, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mingw-binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mingw32-binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mingw64-binutils

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/12/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-19548

Detections

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