Vulnerability · Published Jul 15, 2026 · Assigned by mitre
CVE-2026-38753
Medium 4.9
In plain English
A medium-severity use-after-free in BusyBox from BusyBox. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 4% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Severity (CVSS 3.1)4.9Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 96.2% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known
Official description
A use-after-free in the awk_sub() function (editors/awk.c) of Busybox v1.38.0 allows attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via supplying a crafted AWK script.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | busybox | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-38753 |
| Debian:13 | busybox | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-38753 |
| Debian:14 | busybox | 1:1.38.0-3 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-38753 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | busybox | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-38753 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | busybox | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-38753 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | busybox | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-38753 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | busybox | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-38753 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-416 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L