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Stack-based Buffer OverflowWeakness · CWE-121

CVE-2026-37538

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Buffer overflow vulnerability in socketcand 0.4.2 in file socketcand.c in function main allows attackers to cause a denial of service or other unspecified impacts via crafted bus_name.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Buffer overflow vulnerability in socketcand version 0.4.2 in the main function of socketcand.c allows attackers to cause denial of service or other impacts via a specially crafted bus_name parameter that exceeds the bounds of a fixed-size buffer during copy operations.

MitigationImplement strict bounds checking on the bus_name parameter before copying to ensure the input length does not exceed the destination buffer size; consider using safe string functions like strncpy or snprintf with explicit size limits.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify socketcand is installed
    Run 'which socketcand' or check for the binary in common locations like /usr/sbin/socketcand or /usr/bin/socketcand
    Affected if socketcand binary exists on the system
  2. Determine installed version
    Run 'socketcand -v' or 'socketcand --version' to obtain the version number
    Affected if version is 0.4.2 or earlier (any version prior to patch)
  3. Inspect source code for vulnerable copy operation
    If source is available, examine socketcand.c main function for memcpy, strcpy, or similar copy operations on bus_name variable without length validation
    Affected if source contains unsafe copy of bus_name to a fixed-size buffer without bounds checking
  4. Check runtime usage of bus_name parameter
    Review configuration files, startup scripts, or command-line arguments that pass bus_name to socketcand; look for bus_name values that could exceed typical buffer sizes (e.g., hundreds of characters)
    Affected if bus_name parameter is used without length restrictions in config or command line

A system is affected if socketcand version 0.4.2 or earlier is installed and the bus_name parameter can be passed to the application without length validation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement strict bounds checking on the bus_name parameter before copying to ensure the input length does not exceed the destination buffer size; consider using safe string functions like strncpy or snprintf with explicit size limits.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-37538 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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