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CVE-2026-53941

Vulnerability in github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget (CVE-2026-53941)

Summary

Vulnerability in github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget (CVE-2026-53941). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Exploitable via readStringFromBytes. Mitigation: upgrade to 0.53.1 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

Summary

An unprivileged container can block all other containers from starting on the
same host by placing a crafted /etc/ld.so.cache file in its filesystem. When
Inspektor Gadget attaches any uprobe-based gadget, it parses this file in the
container startup path. A malicious cache causes ~53 seconds of CPU burn,
during which Docker cannot start any other container. No special capabilities
are required.

Severity

To be assessed — Availability impact, no confidentiality or integrity impact.

Affected Versions

All versions of Inspektor Gadget that support uprobe-based gadgets (trace_malloc, trace_open, trace_ssl, trace_grpc, etc.).

Description

When Inspektor Gadget attaches uprobe-based gadgets to containers, it resolves library paths by parsing the container's /etc/ld.so.cache file (pkg/uprobetracer/ldcache_parser.go). This file is fully controlled by the container.

The parser has three vulnerabilities:

  1. Quadratic string building (pkg/uprobetracer/bytes.go:36-44): The readStringFromBytes function concatenates one byte at a time (res += string(data[i])), which is O(n²) in Go due to string immutability. With a 16MB cache file containing large regions without null terminators, this causes massive CPU and memory churn.

  2. Insufficient entry count validation (pkg/uprobetracer/ldcache_parser.go:120): The EntryCount field is read directly from the untrusted file. While a per-entry bounds check prevents out-of-bounds access, the loop still…

Source: GitHub Security Advisories (Global) NVD GitHub Advisory

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-53941 has been found in github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like readStringFromBytes over the network to misuse the product.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget to 0.53.1 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget CVE-2026-53941" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2026-53941 (github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget) — CWE-770
Attack surface: readStringFromBytes / EntryCount / cache1Len / readCacheFormat2
Patched: 0.53.1 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (CWE-770) exists in github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via readStringFromBytes.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget. Attack surface: readStringFromBytes / EntryCount / cache1Len / readCacheFormat2.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 0.53.1.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

  1. 1
    Identify exposure identify 
    grep -r 'github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget' . | grep -v node_modules

    リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。

  2. 2
    Apply patch patch 
    Upgrade github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget to 0.53.1

    ステージング環境で 0.53.1 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。

  3. 3
    Post-deployment verification verify 
    Confirm patched version is live in production

    パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

go github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget
[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0.27.0"},{"fixed":"0.53.1"}]}]

References

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