CVE-2026-18739

A flaw was found in popt, a command-line option parsing library. An off-by-one error in the poptStuffArgs function, when repeatedly called by a host application or through deep alias nesting, can lead to corruption of internal program data. This corruption could potentially enable a local attacker to execute arbitrary code if the host application then unsafely processes the altered data.

This flaw has Low impact as it requires a host application to repeatedly call poptStuffArgs or use deep alias nesting, leading to an off-by-one error. Exploitation is only possible if the host application then unsafely processes the corrupted poptContext data, such as sinking it into exec, system, popen, or dlopen.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.