CVE-2026-14461 Out-of-bound read in mtr
An attacker can cause a reliable crash in mtr by sending a crafted DNS response with a large size and compression pointer.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-14461?
CVE-2026-14461 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in BitWizard mtr, published on 10 Jul 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
mtr is vulnerable to Out-of-bound read vulnerability in ipinfo_lookup() function. An attacker who can influence the TXT response used for AS lookups can trigger this bug by returning a DNS response that is larger than 512 bytes and uses a crafted compression pointer in the answer NAME field. ipinfo_lookup() function uses the length of the response as the end-of-message boundary for dn_expand() function. The result is a reliable crash.
This issue exists in the mtr through version 0.96 and it was fixed in commit 48e1794414d338ce47abc0f27c25ade8788af9c3.
Weakness: CWE-125
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-14461?
How do I fix CVE-2026-14461?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-14461 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-14461 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Public exploit code: 1 proofs of concept on GitHub.
Sources
Also known as AZL-92198, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-14461, GHSA-58vq-325m-3wrj, OESA-2026-3158, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-14461.