---
id: CVE-2026-18743
title: A flaw was found in popt
summary: >-
  A flaw was found in popt. This vulnerability allows an attacker to provide
  specially crafted configuration content to a host, which, when loaded, can
  lead to a small memory corruption issue. This occurs because of an error in
  how the `po…
severity: low
cvss: 2.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L'
cwe:
  - CWE-131
vendor: rpm-software-management
product: popt
affected:
  - popt >= 1.11 < *
  - popt-main (all versions)
  - popt (all versions)
  - popt (all versions)
  - popt (all versions)
  - popt (all versions)
  - popt (all versions)
  - openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8 (all versions)
  - openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 (all versions)
published: '2026-09-01'
updated: '2026-09-08'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-08T23:17:23.813'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-18743'
references:
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:56984'
    label: secalert@redhat.com
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-18743'
    label: secalert@redhat.com
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2510809'
    label: secalert@redhat.com
  - url: >-
      https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-18743.json
  - url: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-18743'
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-18743'
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
  - csaf
  - vex
  - red-hat
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-09-01T13:18:26.638625Z'
epss: 0.00141
epssPercentile: 0.02846
ingestedAt: '2026-09-08T23:13:54.646Z'
patched:
  - hardened_images
---

## Overview

A flaw was found in popt. This vulnerability allows an attacker to provide specially crafted configuration content to a host, which, when loaded, can lead to a small memory corruption issue. This occurs because of an error in how the `poptConfigFileToString` function reallocates memory for buffers. Successful exploitation could result in heap metadata corruption, potentially causing the affected process to become unavailable (denial of service).

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

## Vendor advisories

- **RHSA-2026:56984** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat Hardened Images · released 2026-08-19 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:56984)
- **Red Hat VEX** · Low · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, … · updated 2026-09-08 · [vex](https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-18743.json)