{"id":"CVE-2026-120453","kind":"vulnerability","aliases":["CVE-2026-120453"],"related":[],"title":"The Sleuth Kit: crafted HFS+ image causes heap out-of-bounds read","description":"The Sleuth Kit through 4.15.0 contains a heap out-of-bounds read vulnerability in hfs_load_extended_attrs() in tsk/fs/hfs.c that reads the decmpfs header without checking attribute length. Attackers can supply a crafted HFS+ image with a com.apple.decmpfs attr_size of 1 to 15 to read past the allocation and crash analysis tools like istat or icat.","summary":"The Sleuth Kit forensic toolkit reads past a heap allocation when parsing extended attributes in a crafted HFS+ disk image. An attacker who supplies such an image can crash analysis tools like istat or icat.","severity":"medium","cvss":4.8,"epss":null,"exploited":false,"exploited_at":null,"products":[],"ecosystems":[],"tags":["forensics","hfs+","package","sleuth-kit"],"not_affected_if":["trusted-images-only"],"how_to_check":"- Run `tsk_version` or `istat -V` to see the installed Sleuth Kit version\n- Check whether the installed version is `4.15.0` or earlier","fix":null,"status":"open","published_at":"2026-11-02T15:17:28+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-11-02T15:24:03+00:00","triaged_at":"2026-11-02T15:26:30+00:00","updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:26:30+00:00","category":"package","confidence":0.6,"triage":{"at":"2026-11-02T15:26:30Z","model":"claude-haiku-5-5","output":{"fix":"unknown","reach":"local","title":"The Sleuth Kit: crafted HFS+ image causes heap out-of-bounds read","impact":"low","summary":"The Sleuth Kit forensic toolkit reads past a heap allocation when parsing extended attributes in a crafted HFS+ disk image. An attacker who supplies such an image can crash analysis tools like istat or icat.","audience":"developers","category":"package","nicknames":[],"who_cares":["sleuth-kit","forensics","hfs+"],"confidence":0.6,"fix_status":"unknown","needs_auth":"no","worst_case":"analysis tool crashes when reading a crafted image","analyst_note":"Check the release notes linked from NVD for a fixed version and confirm whether the flaw is only a crash or can lead to more.","how_to_check":"- Run `tsk_version` or `istat -V` to see the installed Sleuth Kit version\n- Check whether the installed version is `4.15.0` or earlier","plain_action":"","needs_analyst":true,"not_affected_if":["trusted-images-only"],"who_is_affected":"Teams that run The Sleuth Kit on untrusted disk images, such as forensic or incident-response analysts processing HFS+ evidence from unknown sources. The sources describe a crash (denial of service) rather than code execution. Teams that only analyze images they trust can likely skip it.","user_interaction":"yes","needs_special_setup":"no","severity_if_unknown":"medium"},"cost_usd":0.000679,"input_tokens":4217,"output_tokens":515,"severity_before":"medium"},"analyst_status":null,"analyst_note":null,"search":"'-120453':16A,19A '-2026':15A,18A '1':104C '15':106C '4.15.0':65C 'alloc':35B,111C 'analysi':55B,114C 'attack':47B,91C 'attr':79C,101C 'attribut':39B,89C 'bound':12A,72C 'caus':7A 'check':88C 'com.apple.decmpfs':100C 'contain':66C 'craft':4A,42B,95C 'crash':54B,113C 'cve':14A,17A 'decmpf':85C 'disk':44B 'extend':38B,78C 'forens':20B,29B 'header':86C 'heap':8A,34B,68C 'hfs':5A,21B,43B,76C,96C 'icat':60B,119C 'imag':6A,45B,52B,97C 'istat':58B,117C 'kit':3A,25B,28B,63C 'length':90C 'like':57B,116C 'load':77C 'out-of-bound':9A,69C 'packag':22B 'pars':37B 'past':32B,109C 'read':13A,31B,73C,83C,108C 'size':102C 'sleuth':2A,24B,27B,62C 'sleuth-kit':23B 'suppli':49B,93C 'tool':56B,115C 'toolkit':30B 'tsk/fs/hfs.c':81C 'vulner':74C 'without':87C","nicknames":[],"mitigations":[],"who_affected":"Teams that run The Sleuth Kit on untrusted disk images, such as forensic or incident-response analysts processing HFS+ evidence from unknown sources. The sources describe a crash (denial of service) rather than code execution. Teams that only analyze images they trust can likely skip it.","tier":"C","verified":{},"analyst_revisit_at":null,"fix_status":"none","audience":"developers","plain_action":null,"pkeys":[],"ptokens":[],"labels":["forensics","hfs","medium","package","sleuthkit"],"first_public_at":"2026-11-02T15:17:28+00:00","kev":null,"cvss_vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/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","cvss_by":"disclosure@vulncheck.com","poc_count":0,"sources":[{"source":"nvd","external_id":"CVE-2026-120453","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-120453","severity":null,"published_at":"2026-11-02T15:17:28+00:00","modified_at":"2026-11-02T15:17:28+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-11-02T15:24:03+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-11-02T15:24:03+00:00","note":null}],"documents":[{"id":52503,"url":"https://github.com/sleuthkit/sleuthkit/releases/tag/sleuthkit-4.15.0","title":"Release notes: github.com","kind":"release","source":"nvd","publisher":"vendor","text":null,"published_at":null,"relation":"fix","confidence":null,"note":"Release notes: github.com"},{"id":52504,"url":"https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/the-sleuth-kit-through-4.15.0-heap-out-of-bounds-read-via-hfs-decmpfs-header","title":"Third-party advisory: www.vulncheck.com","kind":"advisory","source":"nvd","publisher":"research","text":null,"published_at":null,"relation":"advisory","confidence":null,"note":"Third-party advisory: www.vulncheck.com"}],"notice":"Free to read at a human pace. An API with keys and an MCP server are in preparation; early access: hello@infrastack.ai"}