CVE-2026-14164: libarchive: RAR5 double free enables remote DoS

HIGHPoC AVAILABLECISA: TRACK*

Published June 30, 2026

CISO Take

CVE-2026-14164 is a double-free in libarchive's RAR5 reader: a crafted archive leaves a stale filtered_buf pointer that is freed twice when the next entry is processed, crashing the host application. The CVSS 7.5 rating comes from network reachability with no privileges or user interaction, but the impact is availability only, with no confidentiality or integrity loss indicated. There is no public exploit, no Nuclei template, no CISA KEV listing and no EPSS score yet, so near-term mass exploitation looks unlikely. The AI relevance is indirect: libarchive is a transitive dependency in Red Hat base images for AI workloads (rhai/base-image-cuda, rocm, cpu, tpu, neuron and spyre, plus rhaii/vllm-gaudi), and any ingestion service that unpacks untrusted archives can be crashed. The package has 97 downstream dependents and 150 other CVEs, which points to a broad but historically noisy attack surface. Apply the Red Hat errata (for example RHSA-2026:30333 and the later RHSA entries) or a patched libarchive build, rebuild the affected container images, and until then avoid parsing untrusted RAR5 archives in AI data pipelines.

Sources:NVDRed Hat Security Advisories (access.redhat.com)ATLAS

What is the risk?

Medium overall for AI environments, despite the High CVSS score. Exploitation is easy and unauthenticated where archive uploads are exposed, but the impact is limited to a crash (denial of service). A double free can in theory lead to memory corruption, but the advisory only describes termination. No public exploit, KEV listing, scanner template or EPSS data was available at analysis time, so exploitation likelihood is low to moderate. Exposure depends on whether untrusted RAR5 archives reach libarchive, directly or through language bindings and base images.

How does the attack unfold?

Initial Access

Attacker delivers a crafted RAR5 archive through an upload, ingestion or model import endpoint.

AML.T0049

Exploitation

libarchive leaves filtered_buf stale during unpacking reinitialization and frees it a second time on the next entry.

Impact

The extracting process aborts, causing denial of service in the ingestion or serving workload.

AML.T0029

Initial Access

Attacker delivers a crafted RAR5 archive through an upload, ingestion or model import endpoint.

AML.T0049

Exploitation

libarchive leaves filtered_buf stale during unpacking reinitialization and frees it a second time on the next entry.

Impact

The extracting process aborts, causing denial of service in the ingestion or serving workload.

AML.T0029

What systems are affected?

Package	Ecosystem	Vulnerable Range	Patched
vLLM	pip	—	No patch
95.4K94 dependentsPushed 6d ago27% patched~37d to patchFull package profile →
vLLM	pip	—	No patch
95.4K94 dependentsPushed 6d ago27% patched~37d to patchFull package profile →
cert-manager/cert-manager-istio-csr-rhel9	—	—	No patch
cert-manager/cert-manager-operator-rhel9	—	—	No patch
cert-manager/cert-manager-trust-manager-rhel9	—	—	No patch
cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-acmesolver-rhel9	—	—	No patch
cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-rhel9	—	—	No patch
discovery/discovery-server-rhel9	—	—	No patch
discovery/discovery-ui-rhel9	—	—	No patch
libarchive	—	—	No patch
libarchive-main	—	—	No patch
openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8	—	—	No patch
openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9	—	—	No patch
rhai/base-image-cpu-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhai/base-image-cuda-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhai/base-image-neuron-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhai/base-image-rocm-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhai/base-image-spyre-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhai/base-image-tpu-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/cds-kubernetes-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/cds-kubernetes-tp-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/cds-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/haproxy-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/installer-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/installer-tp-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/rhua-rhel9	—	—	No patch
rhui5/rhua-tp-rhel9	—	—	No patch

How severe is it?

CVSS 3.1

7.5 / 10

EPSS

0.8%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Higher than 56% of all CVEs

Source: EPSS v3 — FIRST.org

Exploitation Status

Exploit Available

Exploitation: MEDIUM

Sophistication

Trivial

Exploitation Confidence

medium

○CISA SSVC: Public PoC

○Public PoC indexed (trickest/cve)

Composite signal derived from CISA KEV, VulnCheck KEV, CISA SSVC, EPSS, Metasploit, Exploit-DB, trickest/cve, Nuclei templates, and inthewild.io exploitation reports.

What is the attack surface?

AVNetwork

ACLow

PRNone

UINone

SUnchanged

CNone

INone

AHigh

What should I do?

1 step

1) Install the Red Hat errata listed in the references (RHSA-2026:30333, 52674, 52675, 54387, 54760, 54769, 56954, 58558, 58573, 58574) and update libarchive to a fixed build. 2) Rebuild and redeploy AI workload images from patched base images, then scan the image inventory for libarchive. 3) Until patched, reject or sandbox RAR5 archives from untrusted sources, or restrict supported archive formats at ingestion. 4) Run archive extraction in isolated, resource-limited workers with automatic restart so a crash does not affect inference serving. 5) Detect by alerting on repeated SIGABRT or SIGSEGV crashes and glibc 'double free' messages in processes that extract archives, and by watching for malformed RAR5 uploads.

What does CISA's SSVC say?

DecisionTrack*

Exploitationpoc

AutomatableYes

Technical Impactpartial

Source: CISA Vulnrichment (SSVC v2.0). Decision based on the CISA Coordinator decision tree.

How is it classified?

DoSInferenceFrameworkAML.T0010.001- AI Software AML.T0029- Denial of AI Service AML.T0049- Exploit Public-Facing Application

Which compliance frameworks are affected?

This CVE is relevant to:

EU AI Act

Art. 15-Accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity

ISO 42001

A.6.2.6-AI system operation and monitoring

NIST AI RMF

MANAGE 2.3-Response to previously unknown risks and mechanisms to supersede or deactivate systems

OWASP LLM Top 10

LLM03-Supply Chain

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-14164?

Is CVE-2026-14164 actively exploited?

Proof-of-concept exploit code is publicly available for CVE-2026-14164, increasing the risk of exploitation.

How to fix CVE-2026-14164?

1) Install the Red Hat errata listed in the references (RHSA-2026:30333, 52674, 52675, 54387, 54760, 54769, 56954, 58558, 58573, 58574) and update libarchive to a fixed build. 2) Rebuild and redeploy AI workload images from patched base images, then scan the image inventory for libarchive. 3) Until patched, reject or sandbox RAR5 archives from untrusted sources, or restrict supported archive formats at ingestion. 4) Run archive extraction in isolated, resource-limited workers with automatic restart so a crash does not affect inference serving. 5) Detect by alerting on repeated SIGABRT or SIGSEGV crashes and glibc 'double free' messages in processes that extract archives, and by watching for malformed RAR5 uploads.

What systems are affected by CVE-2026-14164?

This vulnerability affects the following AI/ML architecture patterns: Containerized model serving, Data ingestion pipelines, RAG document ingestion, Training and batch pipelines, Kubernetes and OpenShift AI platforms.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-14164?

CVE-2026-14164 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH). The EPSS exploitation probability is 0.79%.

What is the AI security impact?

Affected AI Architectures

Containerized model servingData ingestion pipelinesRAG document ingestionTraining and batch pipelinesKubernetes and OpenShift AI platforms

MITRE ATLAS Techniques

AML.T0010.001AI Software

AML.T0029Denial of AI Service

AML.T0049Exploit Public-Facing Application

Compliance Controls Affected

EU AI Act: Art. 15

ISO 42001: A.6.2.6

NIST AI RMF: MANAGE 2.3

OWASP LLM Top 10: LLM03

What are the technical details?

Original Advisory

A double free issue has been identified in libarchive's RAR5 reader. During parsing of a specially crafted RAR5 archive, the filtered_buf pointer may remain stale after being freed during unpacking state reinitialization. Subsequent processing of another archive entry can trigger a second free of the same memory region, resulting in a double-free condition. Successful exploitation may cause applications using the vulnerable libarchive API to terminate unexpectedly, leading to a denial of service.

Exploitation Scenario

An attacker uploads a crafted multi-entry RAR5 archive to an AI platform's dataset import, document ingestion or model artifact endpoint. The backend uses libarchive to unpack it. While reinitializing unpacking state, the first entry frees filtered_buf but leaves the pointer stale, and processing the next entry frees it again. The extraction worker aborts, and repeated uploads keep ingestion or inference-adjacent services down, interrupting data pipelines and degrading availability.

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-415Double Free

CWE-415 — Double Free: The product calls free() twice on the same memory address.

[Architecture and Design] Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
[Implementation] Ensure that each allocation is freed only once. After freeing a chunk, set the pointer to NULL to ensure the pointer cannot be freed again. In complicated error conditions, be sure that clean-up routines respect the state of allocation properly. If the language is object oriented, ensure that object destructors delete each chunk of memory only once.

Source: MITRE CWE corpus.