CVE-2026-32288 | Unbounded allocation for old GNU sparse in archive/tar

tar.Reader can allocate an unbounded amount of memory when reading a maliciously-crafted archive containing a large number of sparse regions encoded in the "old GNU sparse map" format.

Published: 2026-04-08 Last update: 2026-04-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-32288 is rated Low Risk (22.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-32288

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 2026-04-08 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-32288

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-32288

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-32288

GHSA-x4jj-h2v8-hqqv · Severity: medium — tar.Reader can allocate an unbounded amount of memory when reading a maliciously-crafted archive...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-32288

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2026-32288: 1 source package rows (go); 100 state rows across 2 repos (3.23-community, edge-community); fixed 2, open 98. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2026-32288
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-32288 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 5 source packages (golang-1.15, golang-1.19, golang-1.24, golang-1.25, golang-1.26), 7 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 3. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-32288
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-32288
suse medium CVE-2026-32288 severity moderate: SUSE including 17 source package names (go, go-doc, …), 106 product×package rows across 16 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, … (16 product lines)): Fixed 80, Known Not Affected 26. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-32288/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-32288 medium priority: Ubuntu including 16 source packages (golang, golang-1.10, …), 82 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 49, DNE 33. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-32288

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-32288

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
golang go < 1.25.9 cpe:2.3:a:golang:go:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
golang go >= 1.26.0, < 1.26.2 cpe:2.3:a:golang:go:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-32288

cvelogic Threat Intelligence