# CVE-2026-96273: Ghidra before 12.1.4 Denial of Service via Unreleased Lock in OptionsDB

> Attackers can cause a denial of service in Ghidra by importing a malicious program database file that triggers an unreleased lock, stalling the application.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/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:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 23 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 28 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4w7g-wmg8-fgv5, GHSA-jw6r-7cxw-rf3h

## What is CVE-2026-96273?

CVE-2026-96273 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in NationalSecurityAgency ghidra, published on 23 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

Ghidra before 12.1.4 fails to validate the TYPE_COL byte in OptionsDB.createUnregisteredOption(), causing an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException that leaves domain objects permanently locked. Attackers can craft a malicious program database file that, when imported, causes the application to stall and prevents resource cleanup or graceful shutdown.

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking), CWE-460 (Improper Cleanup on Thrown Exception)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-96273?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-96273?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-96273 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-96273 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96273 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-96273 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-96273 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in NationalSecurityAgency ghidra, published on 23 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: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96273 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: NationalSecurityAgency ghidra. 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-2026-96273/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-96273/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-96273
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96273
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-96273

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-96273/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.