CVE-2026-27168 | SAIL: Heap-based Buffer Overflow in Sail-codecs-xwd

Exp

SAIL is a cross-platform library for loading and saving images with support for animation, metadata, and ICC profiles. All versions are vulnerable to Heap-based Buffer Overflow through the XWD parser's use of the bytes_per_line value. The value os read directly from the file as the read size in io->strict_read(), and is never compared to the actual size of the destination buffer. An attacker can provide an XWD file with an arbitrarily large bytes_per_line, causing a massive write operation beyond the buffer heap allocated for the image pixels. The issue did not have a fix at the time of publication.

Published: 2026-02-21 Last update: 2026-03-02 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-27168 is rated Exploit Available (55.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-27168

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-27168

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-03-24 0.02% 0.05% +0.03%
2 2026-02-21 — 0.02% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-27168

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-27168

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-27168

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-27168 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (sail), 2 status rows across 2 suites (sid, trixie): open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-27168
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-27168 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (sail), 4 status rows across 4 suites (jammy, noble, questing, upstream): needs-triage 3, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-27168

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-27168

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sail sail <= 0.9.10 cpe:2.3:a:sail:sail:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-27168

cvelogic Threat Intelligence