CVE-2026-72854 PUBLISHED

msgpack-c Integer Overflow in msgpack_unpacker_expand_buffer Causes a False-Success Undersized Reservation

Assigner: VulnCheck
Reserved: 10.08.2026 Published: 20.08.2026 Updated: 20.08.2026

msgpack_unpacker_expand_buffer in src/unpack.c, reached through the public msgpack_unpacker_reserve_buffer API, computes its new buffer size using an unchecked size_t addition of the requested size and the amount already used. The doubling loop guards its own multiplication against overflow, but the addition in the loop condition is unguarded, so a request near SIZE_MAX wraps: the loop condition is already satisfied, the allocation is performed at the small pre-wrap size, and the function returns true. The caller is told the requested capacity was reserved when it was not, so a subsequent write of the requested length overflows the heap buffer. The library's own example/lib_buffer_unpack.c demonstrates the reserve-then-write pattern, and its defensive assert comparing capacity against the request is compiled out under NDEBUG. msgpack-c's own decode entry points do not derive the reservation size from untrusted input, so reaching this requires an integration that passes an attacker-influenced length to the reservation API, such as a length-prefixed streaming transport.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS Score: 5.8

Product Status

Vendor msgpack
Product msgpack-c
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 7.0.1 (incl.)

Credits

  • mtholmquist reporter

References

Problem Types

  • Integer Overflow or Wraparound CWE
  • Out-of-bounds Write CWE