# CVE-2026-71972: U-Boot through 2026.10-rc5 Out-of-Bounds Write in BMP RLE8 Decoder

> Attackers can crash the bootloader or potentially execute code by supplying a crafted RLE8-compressed BMP image to U-Boot.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.0 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 29 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 30 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-105726, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71972, GHSA-9fh8-rw5q-p54v, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-71972

## What is CVE-2026-71972?

CVE-2026-71972 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in u-boot, published on 29 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

U-Boot through 2026.10-rc5 contains an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the video_display_rle8_bitmap function in drivers/video/video_bmp.c. Attackers can supply a crafted RLE8-compressed BMP image to corrupt memory adjacent to the framebuffer and crash the bootloader.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-71972?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-71972?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-71972 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-71972 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-71972 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-71972 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-71972 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in u-boot, published on 29 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-71972 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: u-boot. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-71972/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-71972/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-71972
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-71972
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-71972

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-71972/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.