CVE-2026-4738 | GDAL Bundled zlib (inftree9.c) Pointer Offset Optimization Undefined Behavior Allows Heap Corruption or Remote Code Execution

Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer vulnerability in OSGeo gdal (frmts/zlib/contrib/infback9 modules). This vulnerability is associated with program files inftree9.C‎. This issue affects gdal: before 3.11.0.

Published: 2026-03-24 Last update: 2026-03-24 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-4738 is rated Moderate Risk (44.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.28%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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-2026-4738

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 2026-06-15 0.06% 0.28% +0.22%
2 2026-03-30 0.04% 0.06% +0.01%
3 2026-03-24 0.04%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-4738

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.4 4.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:A/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:P/AU:Y/R:U/V:C/RE:L/U:Amber Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:P)
A user has to participate (for example click/open/approve).
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:H)
High integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:H)
High availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:H)
High confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:H)
High integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:H)
High availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:A)
Attacked: exploitation has been reported, or toolkits exist that simplify exploitation.
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:P)
Present: impact meets IEC 61508 marginal, critical, or catastrophic safety consequence levels.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:Y)
Yes: all four kill-chain steps (reconnaissance, weaponization, delivery, exploitation) can be automated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:U)
User: manual user intervention is needed to recover services.
Value density (supplemental) (V:C)
Concentrated: a single exploit event controls rich resources (e.g., a central server).
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:L)
Low/trivial response effort (documentation, simple configuration, low-touch guidance).
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:AMBER)
Amber: provider rates moderate urgency.
[email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-4738

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-4738

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-4738 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (gdal), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-4738
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-4738 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (gdal), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): needed 7, not-affected 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-4738

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-4738

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2026-4738

cvelogic Threat Intelligence