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Ubuntu Gzip Critical Denial Of Service Local Attack USN-8512

Ubuntu Gzip Critical Denial Of Service Local Attack USN-8512

Linuxsecurity •LinuxSecurity Advisories • July 6, 2026

Several security issues were fixed in Gzip. Software Description: - gzip: GNU compression utilities Details: It was discovered that Gzip's gzexe utility handled temporary files in an insecure manner. When the mktemp utility was not available, gzexe constructed a temporary file path based on the process ID, which could be predicted. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack. (CVE-2026-41991) It was discovered that Gzip incorrectly handled certain compressed files. An attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information or cause Gzip to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-41992)

Several security issues were fixed in Gzip.

Software Description:

- gzip: GNU compression utilities

It was discovered that Gzip's gzexe utility handled temporary files in an

insecure manner. When the mktemp utility was not available, gzexe

constructed a temporary file path based on the process ID, which could be

predicted. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to overwrite

arbitrary files via a symlink attack. (CVE-2026-41991)

It was discovered that Gzip incorrectly handled certain compressed files.

An attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information

or cause Gzip to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-41992)

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS gzip 1.14-1~exp2ubuntu1.1 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS gzip 1.12-1ubuntu3.2 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS gzip 1.10-4ubuntu4.2 In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

CVE-2026-41991, CVE-2026-41992

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-8512-1

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