CVE-2026-81885 radare2: Infinite relocation-chain loop causes denial of service in radare2 NE parser
An attacker can cause denial of service in radare2 by providing a crafted NE executable that triggers an infinite loop in the relocation parser.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-81885?
CVE-2026-81885 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Radare Radare2, published on 22 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
radare2 is a UNIX-like reverse engineering framework and command-line toolset. Prior to 6.2.0, radare2's NE relocation fixup-chain parser was vulnerable because the NE relocation parser followed fixup chains without an active iteration limit or cycle detection. The vulnerability is triggered by opening a crafted NE executable whose in-bounds relocation entry points back to itself instead of reaching 0xffff. The parser repeatedly processed the same relocation and allocated another relocation object on each iteration. This can cause denial of service through continuous CPU and memory consumption. This issue is fixed in version 6.2.0.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-81885?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Radare Radare2.
How do I fix CVE-2026-81885?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-81885 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-81885 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in Radare Radare2
Sources
Also known as GHSA-43wr-4j49-rcxj, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-81885.