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CVE-2026-44778

Inspektor Gadget: Unprivileged container can crash USDT note parser via crafted ELF

2.9 LowFix available

Inspektor Gadget is a set of tools and framework for data collection and system inspection on Kubernetes clusters and Linux hosts using eBPF. From 0.28.0 until 0.53.1, the USDT note parser in pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go can allow an unprivileged container to crash or exhaust the memory of the privileged Inspektor Gadget process when a custom gadget containing a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section attaches to a crafted ELF binary. The getUsdtInfo() function reads the .note.stapsdt section without validating that DescSize is large enough for three address fields, allowing an out-of-bounds slice operation to panic, and it uses untrusted NameSize and DescSize values for allocations that can consume gigabytes of memory. The parser also invokes debug/elf without panic recovery, allowing other malformed ELF structures to terminate the process. No gadget shipped by Inspektor Gadget uses USDT probes, so only deployments using custom USDT gadgets are affected, and the demonstrated impact is denial of service rather than code execution or privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 0.53.1.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

Exploit likelihood

0.63%Up 0.2 points since Sep 16, 2026
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 2.9

Inspektor Gadget: Unprivileged container can crash USDT note parser via crafted ELF

Inspektor Gadget is a set of tools and framework for data collection and system inspection on Kubernetes clusters and Linux hosts using eBPF. From 0.28.0 until 0.53.1, the USDT note parser in pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go can allow an unprivileged container to crash or exhaust the memory of the privileged Inspektor Gadget process when a custom gadget containing a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section attaches to a crafted ELF binary. The getUsdtInfo() function reads the .note.stapsdt section without validating that DescSize is large enough for three address fields, allowing an out-of-bounds slice operation to panic, and it uses untrusted NameSize and DescSize values for allocations that can consume gigabytes of memory. The parser also invokes debug/elf without panic recovery, allowing other malformed ELF structures to terminate the process. No gadget shipped by Inspektor Gadget uses USDT probes, so only deployments using custom USDT gadgets are affected, and the demonstrated impact is denial of service rather than code execution or privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 0.53.1.

Record
CVE-2026-44778
CVSS 4.0
2.9 LowCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Weakness
CWE-20
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2026-78938 2.9

Inspektor Gadget is a set of tools and framework for data collection and system inspection on Kubernetes clusters and Linux hosts using eBPF. From 0.28.0 until 0.53.1, the USDT note parser in pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go can allow an unprivileged container to crash or exhaust the memory of the privileged Inspektor Gadget process when a custom gadget containing a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section attaches to a crafted ELF binary. The getUsdtInfo() function reads the .note.stapsdt section without validating that DescSize is large enough for three address fields, allowing an out-of-bounds slice operation to panic, and it uses untrusted NameSize and DescSize values for allocations that can consume gigabytes of memory. The parser also invokes debug/elf without panic recovery, allowing other malformed ELF structures to terminate the process. No gadget shipped by Inspektor Gadget uses USDT probes, so only deployments using custom USDT gadgets are affected, and the demonstrated impact is denial of service rather than code execution or privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 0.53.1.

Record
EUVD-2026-78938
CVSS 4.0
2.9 LowCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Updated
2026-11-02
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-7cfq-5mhv-jrp9 2.9

Inspektor Gadget: Unprivileged container can crash USDT note parser via crafted ELF (no shipped gadget affected)

Summary

A malicious container can crash or destabilize the privileged Inspektor Gadget process when a gadget using USDT probes is deployed. The vulnerability is in the USDT note parser (pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go) which is invoked when a gadget with a SEC("usdt/...") section attaches to a target binary. An unprivileged process can place a crafted ELF binary at the expected library path, triggering one of two attack vectors:

  1. Panic (immediate crash): A stapsdt note with a small DescSize causes an out-of-bounds slice access, panicking the IG process.
  2. Memory exhaustion (OOM kill): A stapsdt note with a very large NameSize or DescSize causes IG to allocate up to ~4 GiB of memory, which can killnthe process if deployed with memory restrictions (e.g., cgroup limits).

Important: The vulnerability is only triggered when running a gadget that uses USDT probes (i.e., contains a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section). No gadget shipped by the Inspektor Gadget project uses USDT today. Users who deploy their own custom USDT gadgets are affected.

Severity

Low — Denial of Service (process crash or OOM) of a privileged host process, triggered by an unprivileged container. The vulnerable code path is only reached when a gadget using USDT probes is deployed. No such gadget is shipped by the Inspektor Gadget project; only users running custom USDT gadgets are affected.

  • Attack vector: An unprivileged process in a container places a crafted ELF file at a path that a USDT gadget targets (e.g., a library name resolved via the container's ld cache). When the gadget attaches, IG parses the malicious ELF and crashes.
  • Impact: The IG process panics and crashes (vector 1) or is OOM-killed (vector 2). This is a DoS against the monitoring infrastructure, not a code execution or privilege escalation vulnerability.
  • Affected component: pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go, function getUsdtInfo()
  • Prerequisites: A gadget with a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section must be running and configured to attach to a library inside the attacker's container. No shipped gadgets use USDT probes, so this only affects deployments with custom USDT gadgets.

Affected Versions

All versions of Inspektor Gadget that include USDT support in pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go, starting from v0.28.0 (commit 7ee5e7a90 "pkg/uprobetracer: support USDT trace points").

Root Cause

Vector 1: Out-of-bounds slice access (panic)

In pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go, the function getUsdtInfo() parses stapsdt notes from an ELF file's .note.stapsdt section. When a matching note is found (name == "stapsdt\0" and type == 3), it reads three address fields from the note descriptor:

// usdt.go lines 137-139
elfLocation := elfReader.ByteOrder.Uint64(desc[:wordSize])
elfBase := elfReader.ByteOrder.Uint64(desc[wordSize : 2*wordSize])
elfSemaphore := elfReader.ByteOrder.Uint64(desc[2*wordSize : 3*wordSize])

For a 64-bit ELF, wordSize = 8, so this requires desc to be at least 24 bytes. However, desc is allocated based on the note's DescSize field from the ELF file:

desc := make([]byte, alignUp(uint64(header.DescSize), 4))

A crafted ELF with DescSize = 1 produces a 4-byte desc buffer. The expression desc[:8] then panics with:

panic: runtime error: slice bounds out of range [:8] with capacity 4

Vector 2: Unbounded memory allocation (OOM)

The NameSize and DescSize fields from the note header are used directly to allocate memory without any upper bound:

name := make([]byte, alignUp(uint64(header.NameSize), 4))
desc := make([]byte, alignUp(uint64(header.DescSize), 4))

A crafted ELF with NameSize = 0xFFFFFFFF would attempt to allocate ~4 GiB of memory. Under cgroup memory limits (common in Kubernetes deployments), this triggers an OOM kill of the IG process.

Vector 3: Missing panic recovery for debug/elf

Go's debug/elf package is [not hardened against adversarial…

Record
GHSA-7cfq-5mhv-jrp9
CVSS 4.0
2.9 LowCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Weakness
CWE-20
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 2.9

Inspektor Gadget is a set of tools and framework for data collection and system inspection on Kubernetes clusters and Linux hosts using eBPF. From 0.28.0 until 0.53.1, the USDT note parser in pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go can allow an unprivileged container to crash or exhaust the memory of the privileged Inspektor Gadget process when a custom gadget containing a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section attaches to a crafted ELF binary. The getUsdtInfo() function reads the .note.stapsdt section without validating that DescSize is large enough for three address fields, allowing an out-of-bounds slice operation to panic, and it uses untrusted NameSize and DescSize values for allocations that can consume gigabytes of memory. The parser also invokes debug/elf without panic recovery, allowing other malformed ELF structures to terminate the process. No gadget shipped by Inspektor Gadget uses USDT probes, so only deployments using custom USDT gadgets are affected, and the demonstrated impact is denial of service rather than code execution or privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 0.53.1.

Record
CVE-2026-44778
CVSS 4.0
2.9 LowCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Weakness
CWE-20
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 2.9

Inspektor Gadget: Unprivileged container can crash USDT note parser via crafted ELF

Inspektor Gadget is a set of tools and framework for data collection and system inspection on Kubernetes clusters and Linux hosts using eBPF. From 0.28.0 until 0.53.1, the USDT note parser in pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go can allow an unprivileged container to crash or exhaust the memory of the privileged Inspektor Gadget process when a custom gadget containing a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section attaches to a crafted ELF binary. The getUsdtInfo() function reads the .note.stapsdt section without validating that DescSize is large enough for three address fields, allowing an out-of-bounds slice operation to panic, and it uses untrusted NameSize and DescSize values for allocations that can consume gigabytes of memory. The parser also invokes debug/elf without panic recovery, allowing other malformed ELF structures to terminate the process. No gadget shipped by Inspektor Gadget uses USDT probes, so only deployments using custom USDT gadgets are affected, and the demonstrated impact is denial of service rather than code execution or privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 0.53.1.

Record
CVE-2026-44778
CVSS 4.0
2.9 LowCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Weakness
CWE-20
Updated
2026-11-11
OSVGHSA-7cfq-5mhv-jrp9 2.9

Inspektor Gadget: Unprivileged container can crash USDT note parser via crafted ELF (no shipped gadget affected)

Summary

A malicious container can crash or destabilize the privileged Inspektor Gadget process when a gadget using USDT probes is deployed. The vulnerability is in the USDT note parser (pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go) which is invoked when a gadget with a SEC("usdt/...") section attaches to a target binary. An unprivileged process can place a crafted ELF binary at the expected library path, triggering one of two attack vectors:

  1. Panic (immediate crash): A stapsdt note with a small DescSize causes an out-of-bounds slice access, panicking the IG process.
  2. Memory exhaustion (OOM kill): A stapsdt note with a very large NameSize or DescSize causes IG to allocate up to ~4 GiB of memory, which can killnthe process if deployed with memory restrictions (e.g., cgroup limits).

Important: The vulnerability is only triggered when running a gadget that uses USDT probes (i.e., contains a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section). No gadget shipped by the Inspektor Gadget project uses USDT today. Users who deploy their own custom USDT gadgets are affected.

Severity

Low — Denial of Service (process crash or OOM) of a privileged host process, triggered by an unprivileged container. The vulnerable code path is only reached when a gadget using USDT probes is deployed. No such gadget is shipped by the Inspektor Gadget project; only users running custom USDT gadgets are affected.

  • Attack vector: An unprivileged process in a container places a crafted ELF file at a path that a USDT gadget targets (e.g., a library name resolved via the container's ld cache). When the gadget attaches, IG parses the malicious ELF and crashes.
  • Impact: The IG process panics and crashes (vector 1) or is OOM-killed (vector 2). This is a DoS against the monitoring infrastructure, not a code execution or privilege escalation vulnerability.
  • Affected component: pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go, function getUsdtInfo()
  • Prerequisites: A gadget with a SEC("usdt/...") eBPF section must be running and configured to attach to a library inside the attacker's container. No shipped gadgets use USDT probes, so this only affects deployments with custom USDT gadgets.

Affected Versions

All versions of Inspektor Gadget that include USDT support in pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go, starting from v0.28.0 (commit 7ee5e7a90 "pkg/uprobetracer: support USDT trace points").

Root Cause

Vector 1: Out-of-bounds slice access (panic)

In pkg/uprobetracer/usdt.go, the function getUsdtInfo() parses stapsdt notes from an ELF file's .note.stapsdt section. When a matching note is found (name == "stapsdt\0" and type == 3), it reads three address fields from the note descriptor:

// usdt.go lines 137-139
elfLocation := elfReader.ByteOrder.Uint64(desc[:wordSize])
elfBase := elfReader.ByteOrder.Uint64(desc[wordSize : 2*wordSize])
elfSemaphore := elfReader.ByteOrder.Uint64(desc[2*wordSize : 3*wordSize])

For a 64-bit ELF, wordSize = 8, so this requires desc to be at least 24 bytes. However, desc is allocated based on the note's DescSize field from the ELF file:

desc := make([]byte, alignUp(uint64(header.DescSize), 4))

A crafted ELF with DescSize = 1 produces a 4-byte desc buffer. The expression desc[:8] then panics with:

panic: runtime error: slice bounds out of range [:8] with capacity 4

Vector 2: Unbounded memory allocation (OOM)

The NameSize and DescSize fields from the note header are used directly to allocate memory without any upper bound:

name := make([]byte, alignUp(uint64(header.NameSize), 4))
desc := make([]byte, alignUp(uint64(header.DescSize), 4))

A crafted ELF with NameSize = 0xFFFFFFFF would attempt to allocate ~4 GiB of memory. Under cgroup memory limits (common in Kubernetes deployments), this triggers an OOM kill of the IG process.

Vector 3: Missing panic recovery for debug/elf

Go's debug/elf package is [not hardened against adversarial…

Record
GHSA-7cfq-5mhv-jrp9
CVSS 4.0
2.9 LowCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Weakness
CWE-20
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGO-2026-5214 No score

Inspektor Gadget: Unprivileged container can crash USDT note parser via crafted ELF (no shipped gadget affected) in github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget

Inspektor Gadget: Unprivileged container can crash USDT note parser via crafted ELF (no shipped gadget affected) in github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget

Record
GO-2026-5214
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1 No score

Security update for govulncheck-vulndb

This update for govulncheck-vulndb fixes the following issues:

  • Update to version 0.0.20260723T184607 2026-07-23T18:46:07Z (jsc#PED-11136).

Go CVE Numbering Authority IDs added or updated with aliases:

  • GO-2026-4730 CVE-2026-33022 GHSA-cv4x-93xx-wgfj
  • GO-2026-4761 CVE-2026-33211 GHSA-j5q5-j9gm-2w5c
  • GO-2026-5102 CVE-2026-45021 GHSA-3vcp-chfh-f6r2
  • GO-2026-5272 CVE-2026-40938 GHSA-94jr-7pqp-xhcq
  • GO-2026-5486 CVE-2026-40924 GHSA-m2cx-gpqf-qf74
  • GO-2026-5542 CVE-2026-40090 GHSA-pj97-4p9w-gx3q
  • GO-2026-5630 CVE-2026-25542 GHSA-rmx9-2pp3-xhcr
  • GO-2026-5643 CVE-2026-40923 GHSA-rx35-6rhx-7858
  • GO-2026-5675 CVE-2026-41492 GHSA-vvf7-6rmr-m29q
  • GO-2026-5711 CVE-2026-40161 GHSA-wjxp-xrpv-xpff
  • GO-2026-5746 CVE-2026-41567 GHSA-x86f-5xw2-fm2r
  • GO-2026-5749 CVE-2026-41328 GHSA-x92x-px7w-4gx4
  • GO-2026-5837 CVE-2026-44840 GHSA-q2m9-6jp9-c6mc
  • GO-2026-5929 CVE-2026-44342 GHSA-26v7-h57m-gh9m
  • GO-2026-5930 CVE-2026-33655 GHSA-6qcr-qxgr-m7fv
  • GO-2026-5933 GHSA-3g4q-2f67-2gvh
  • GO-2026-5934 GHSA-59qp-cfj3-rp64
  • GO-2026-5935 GHSA-7856-g3gv-9wq8
  • GO-2026-5936 CVE-2026-53552 GHSA-26rh-24rg-j3vv
  • GO-2026-5937 CVE-2026-53508 GHSA-2jcc-mxv7-p3f9
  • GO-2026-5938 CVE-2026-53553 GHSA-4g5x-hcwm-82jw
  • GO-2026-5939 CVE-2026-10517 GHSA-698x-9w2p-7vvp
  • GO-2026-5940 CVE-2026-53572 GHSA-6w3m-4hhp-775q
  • GO-2026-5941 CVE-2026-53487 GHSA-gvhc-wv3v-7pf8
  • GO-2026-5942 CVE-2026-46600
  • GO-2026-5944 CVE-2026-50197 GHSA-659f-rgp5-w4wf
  • GO-2026-5945 CVE-2026-6815 GHSA-rmxx-v9rj-vpvg
  • GO-2026-5946 CVE-2026-52831 GHSA-v5px-423j-pf7p
  • GO-2026-5947 CVE-2026-53649 GHSA-xqhv-chqm-fhcc
  • GO-2026-5948 CVE-2026-50554 GHSA-588f-fvcv-xhvf
  • GO-2026-5949 CVE-2026-50553 GHSA-rqrh-8wpv-x7hh
  • GO-2026-5950 CVE-2026-53602 GHSA-339v-266x-79xr
  • GO-2026-5951 CVE-2026-10219 GHSA-6jm8-4fhr-5w64
  • GO-2026-5952 CVE-2026-49834 GHSA-9vcr-p3rj-q5q6
  • GO-2026-5953 CVE-2026-9094 GHSA-c9w5-qp6m-m395
  • GO-2026-5956 CVE-2026-55252 GHSA-h5g6-xmh4-hc37
  • GO-2026-5957 CVE-2026-54158 GHSA-5xfx-xj4h-5p7r
  • GO-2026-5958 CVE-2026-54068 GHSA-gcm7-57gf-953c
  • GO-2026-5959 CVE-2026-54072 GHSA-h29v-hj44-q8cv
  • GO-2026-5961 CVE-2026-54069 GHSA-hvr9-72v2-fff3
  • GO-2026-5962 CVE-2026-54088 GHSA-m93h-4hw7-5qcm
  • GO-2026-5963 CVE-2026-54067 GHSA-mvjr-vv3c-w4qv
  • GO-2026-5964 CVE-2026-54066 GHSA-p4m3-mgmm-c664
  • GO-2026-5965 CVE-2026-54070 GHSA-w7cg-whh7-xp28
  • GO-2026-5966 CVE-2026-54089 GHSA-xqp3-jq6g-x3qm
  • GO-2026-5967 CVE-2026-50551 GHSA-56mp-4f3v-fgj2
  • GO-2026-5968 CVE-2026-54174 GHSA-fpg8-7664-jc5q
  • GO-2026-5969 GHSA-g936-7jqj-mwv8
  • GO-2026-5970 CVE-2026-56852
  • GO-2026-5973 CVE-2026-54250 GHSA-jxr7-mqhw-9p98
  • GO-2026-5974 CVE-2026-44300 GHSA-wmj8-9953-vff5
  • GO-2026-5975 CVE-2026-50018 GHSA-42j2-w334-qxw7
  • GO-2026-5976 CVE-2026-50141 GHSA-g7mm-9vx7-jm7h
  • GO-2026-5977 CVE-2026-50013 GHSA-qrh4-p6v4-mrfg
  • GO-2026-5978 CVE-2026-50125 GHSA-qw5r-ppcg-f8rj
  • GO-2026-5979 CVE-2026-50006 GHSA-xrcf-6jh3-ggvx
  • GO-2026-5980 CVE-2026-50158 GHSA-2c7f-fxww-6w6c
  • GO-2026-5981 GHSA-mqxv-9rm6-w8qc
  • GO-2026-5982 GHSA-pqg7-v6wh-3pfp
  • GO-2026-5984 CVE-2026-53604 GHSA-2p2f-px33-4vv5
  • GO-2026-5985 GHSA-7rx3-5wx3-5v76
  • GO-2026-5986 CVE-2026-61699 GHSA-cm26-5974-52h8
  • GO-2026-5987 CVE-2026-55513 GHSA-g4x6-jcvr-9m3g
  • GO-2026-5988 CVE-2026-54628 GHSA-hwrq-8wxh-q4xv
  • GO-2026-5989 CVE-2026-55512 GHSA-m3cx-mwpg-32jg
  • GO-2026-5990 CVE-2026-54629 GHSA-mf78-3rpf-r784
  • GO-2026-5991 CVE-2026-53603 GHSA-q4vm-pq3q-8wgq
  • GO-2026-5992 CVE-2026-61549 GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8
  • GO-2026-5996 CVE-2026-54450 GHSA-pph6-vfjv-vpjw
  • GO-2026-5997 CVE-2026-54452 GHSA-xgch-x3mx-cm3c
  • GO-2026-5998 CVE-2026-54495 GHSA-398h-7f66-3h4p
  • GO-2026-5999 CVE-2026-10814 GHSA-jh6h-v6mp-h22v
  • GO-2026-6002 CVE-2026-58196 GHSA-pr64-jmmf-jp54
  • GO-2026-6003 CVE-2026-53714 GHSA-22xc-xg2r-9j7v
  • GO-2026-6004 CVE-2026-52833 GHSA-3v79-m2cg-89ww
  • GO-2026-6005 CVE-2026-53715 GHSA-8fv2-88gg-hm7q
  • GO-2026-6006 CVE-2026-53716 GHSA-cxpq-8v7q-cg56 *…
Record
openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget
Go
 0.28.0 up to 0.53.1
0.53.1
govulncheck-vulndb
openSUSE:Leap 16.0
From an advisory covering 1734 CVEs
 before 0.0.20260723T184607-160000.1.1
0.0.20260723T184607-160000.1.1

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
affected, facts
first indexedCVE List, EUVD, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2026-44778 is a low vulnerability (CVSS 2.9) in Inspektor-gadget, published June 22, 2026. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.63%, the 50th percentile. Fixed in github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget 0.53.1.

References

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