bzip2recover off-by-one flaw causes denial of service
bzip2recover utility contains an off-by-one vulnerability (CVE-2026-42250) allowing denial of service via crafted files; patch available.
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What to check
- Applies to
- The 1 CVE named below. Whether you run an affected version is not assessed: check the versions the source lists.
- Exploitation
- No exploitation in the wild and no public exploit is recorded for the CVEs named.
CERT Polska coordinated disclosure of CVE-2026-42250, an off-by-one error in the bzip2recover utility. When processing a specially crafted file, the vulnerability triggers an out-of-bounds write to a global buffer, leading to memory corruption and application crash. This results in a denial-of-service condition. The issue has been addressed in bzip2 patch 35d122a3df8b0cc4082a4d89fdc6ee99f375fe67.
The vulnerability was responsibly reported by researchers Michał Majchrowicz and Marcin Wyczechowski from AFINE Team. Organizations using bzip2, particularly the bzip2recover utility for file recovery operations, should apply the available patch to mitigate potential denial-of-service risks.
While the vulnerability requires processing of a malicious file, the widespread use of bzip2 in compression workflows across various industries warrants attention. The primary impact is availability disruption rather than data compromise or system compromise.
Mentioned in this report
Source reporting: https://cert.pl/en/posts/2026/05/CVE-2026-42250
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