# 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.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 22 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 25 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-43wr-4j49-rcxj, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-81885

## 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.

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition), CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-81885?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Radare Radare2.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-81885?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## 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

- [CVE-2025-1864](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-1864/): Buffer Overflow and Potential Code Execution in Radare2 (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2025-1744](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-1744/): Out-of-bounds Write in radare2 (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-32494](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-32494/): Denial of service in radare2 (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-32495](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-32495/): Use after free in radare2 (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2024-29646](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-29646/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-81885 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-81885 exists.

Affected product: Radare Radare2. 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-2026-81885/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-81885/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-81885
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-81885
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-81885

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-81885/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.