CVE-2026-16461 Red Hat CVE debrief

Who should care

Users and administrators who utilize rpcbind and rpcinfo utilities should be aware of this vulnerability. Specifically, those who run `rpcinfo -s` against potentially malicious or compromised rpcbind endpoints are at risk of experiencing a crash or denial of service.

Technical summary

The vulnerability is a stack-based buffer overflow in rpcbind's rpcinfo utility, specifically in the rpcbdump() function when used in short mode (`rpcinfo -s`). The function writes version numbers from a remote RPCBPROC_DUMP reply into a fixed-size stack buffer without performing bounds checking. This oversight allows an attacker to potentially overflow the buffer, leading to a crash or denial of service of the rpcinfo client.

Defensive priority

Medium priority should be given to addressing this vulnerability, especially for systems and administrators who frequently use rpcinfo against various endpoints.

Recommended defensive actions

• Immediately apply any available patches or updates for rpcbind and rpcinfo utilities.
• Limit the use of `rpcinfo -s` against untrusted or potentially compromised rpcbind endpoints.
• Implement monitoring to detect and respond to potential exploitation attempts.
• Consider compensating controls such as restricting access to rpcbind services.
• Inventory rpcbind and rpcinfo utility usage within the organization to identify potentially affected systems.

Evidence notes

The CVE record was published on 2026-07-21T12:17:21.030Z and was last modified on 2026-07-22T15:16:53.693Z. The NVD entry is currently Awaiting Analysis. References include links to Red Hat's security advisory and a Bugzilla entry.

Official resources