CVE-2026-40553

Publication date 13 July 2026

Last updated 16 July 2026

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

Buffer overflow vulnerability has been found in "extension/readdir.c" program file of gawk (ftype() routine). This issue could be used to crash the program and potentially to achieve code execution, although the latter has not been confirmed to be feasible. It affects gawk in versions 5.4.0 and below.

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
gawk	26.04 LTS resolute	Vulnerable
	24.04 LTS noble	Not affected
	22.04 LTS jammy	Not affected
	20.04 LTS focal	Not affected
	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not affected
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not affected

Severity score breakdown

CVSS version:

Base score 5.1 · Medium

Base metrics

Parameter	Value
Attack vector	Local
Attack complexity	Low
Attack requirements	None
Privileges required	None
User interaction	None
Vulnerable system - Confidentiality impact	None
Vulnerable system - Integrity impact	Low
Vulnerable system - Availability impact	Low
Subsequent system - Confidentiality impact	Low
Subsequent system - Integrity impact	Low
Subsequent system - Availability impact	Low

Scores

Parameter	Value
Base score	5.1 · Medium
Base + Threat score	-
Base + Environmental score	-
Base + Threat + Environmental score	-

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

Base score 7.5 · High