CVE-2026-13732 Red Hat CVE debrief

Who should care

Users and administrators of GDB, particularly those who work with ELF binaries or perform symbol-inspection operations, should be aware of this vulnerability and take necessary precautions to mitigate its effects.

Technical summary

The vulnerability is caused by a linked list removal bug in the read_member_functions() function in gdb/stabsread.c. The bug allows an attacker to craft an ELF binary with malicious .stab and .stabstr sections that triggers an out-of-bounds write when a user opens the file in GDB and performs any symbol-inspection operation. This can lead to execution of arbitrary commands within the GDB process. Users and administrators of GDB, particularly those who work with ELF binaries or perform symbol-inspection operations, should be aware of this vulnerability and take necessary precautions to mitigate its effects. The CVE record was published on 2026-08-31T20:17:02.180Z and has not been modified since then. No additional information is available about vendor guidance or affected product scope beyond GDB's STABS debug format parser. Limited evidence suggests that controlled conditions can demonstrate arbitrary command execution within the GDB process, but further details are not provided in the source corpus. The inferior process does not need to be executed to trigger the vulnerability. The bug causes destructor entries to remain in the main function list while the list length counter is decremented, resulting in the out-of-bounds write when the function list is copied to its final allocated array. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious ELF binary with .stab and .stabstr sections that triggers the out-of-bounds write when a user opens the file in GDB and performs symbol-inspection operations such as setting a breakpoint. High-priority defensive actions are required to address this vulnerability, as it allows for arbitrary command execution within the GDB process. The CVSS score for this vulnerability is 7, indicating a high severity level. The source corpus provides detailed information about the vulnerability, including its description and CVSS score, but notes that vendor and product names are unknown and the confidence level is low. Official CVE Program and NIST NVD records provide additional context and vulnerability assessment, but no further details are available about affected products or vendor guidance. Compensating controls, such as

Defensive priority

High-priority defensive actions are required to address this vulnerability, as it allows for arbitrary command execution within the GDB process.

Recommended defensive actions

• Apply patches or updates provided by the vendor to fix the vulnerability
• Restrict access to GDB and limit the execution of untrusted ELF binaries
• Implement compensating controls, such as monitoring and exception tracking, to detect and respond to potential attacks
• Perform inventory checks to identify affected systems and prioritize remediation efforts
• Review compensating controls for exposed systems while remediation is scheduled and verified
• Check relevant monitoring, detection, and logs for exposed assets that need extra review
• Track exceptions, retest remediated assets, and close the item only after evidence is documented

Evidence notes

The source corpus provides detailed information about the vulnerability, including its description, CVSS score, and affected products. However, the corpus also notes that the vendor and product names are unknown, and the confidence level is low.

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.