CVE-2026-3904: Medium severity GNU C Library vulnerability
Calling NSS-backed functions that support caching via nscd may call the nscd client side code and in the GNU C Library version 2.36 under high load on x8664 systems, the client may call memcmp on inputs that are concurrently modified by other processes or threads and crash.
The nscd client in the GNU C Library uses the memcmp function with inputs that may be concurrently modified by another thread, potentially resulting in spurious cache misses, which in itself is not a security issue. However in the GNU C Library version 2.36 an optimized implementation of memcmp was introduced for x8664 which could crash when invoked with such undefined behaviour, turning this into a potential crash of the nscd client and the application that uses it. This implementation was backported to the 2.35 branch, making the nscd client in that branch vulnerable as well. Subsequently, the fix for this issue was backported to all vulnerable branches in the GNU C Library repository.
It is advised that distributions that may have cherry-picked the memcpy SSE2 optimization in their copy of the GNU C Library, also apply the fix to avoid the potential crash in the nscd client.
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of CVE-2026-3904?
CVE-2026-3904 has a high severity due to potential crashes in the GNU C Library under high load.
How do I fix CVE-2026-3904?
To resolve CVE-2026-3904, upgrade to a patched version of the GNU C Library beyond version 2.36.
What is the impact of CVE-2026-3904?
The impact of CVE-2026-3904 includes application crashes when handling concurrent memory modifications.
Which versions of the GNU C Library are affected by CVE-2026-3904?
CVE-2026-3904 affects GNU C Library versions from 2.35 to 2.36 inclusive.
In which environment does CVE-2026-3904 occur?
CVE-2026-3904 occurs on x86_64 systems under high load conditions.