Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Radare2 6.1.5 can mishandle malformed thread information from a remote GDB debugging endpoint. A malicious or compromised endpoint could crash the tool and may enable arbitrary code execution. This primarily affects teams using radare2 for reverse engineering, malware analysis, or remote debugging against untrusted targets.
Executive priority
Treat as high priority for security research and malware-analysis environments. The broad enterprise blast radius is probably limited, but affected analyst systems often handle untrusted inputs and may have sensitive tooling or samples nearby.
Technical view
The vulnerability is a CWE-416 use-after-free in gdbr_pids_list() in the GDB client core. If qfThreadInfo allocates RDebugPid structures and qsThreadInfo then fails, the cleanup path can double-free list state, causing memory corruption. CVSS v4.0 is 8.7 with network attack vector and no required privileges or user interaction.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to systems running radare2 6.1.5, especially analyst workstations, research VMs, CI images, or services that connect radare2's GDB client to remote or untrusted debugging endpoints.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. Public references describe malformed thread information responses as the trigger condition, but do not establish real-world exploitation in the provided evidence.
Researcher notes
Evidence supports a memory-safety flaw in the GDB client error path, with denial of service and potential code execution impact. The provided sources identify a patch reference, but release-level remediation details should be confirmed with radare2 upstream guidance.
Mitigation direction
- Identify and prioritize radare2 6.1.5 deployments.
- Review the upstream issue and patch commit for vendor remediation guidance.
- Upgrade to a vendor release that includes the referenced fix when available.
- Avoid connecting radare2 GDB client sessions to untrusted remote endpoints.
- Run radare2 analysis in isolated research environments.
Validation and detection
- Inventory installed radare2 versions across workstations, containers, and analysis environments.
- Check whether affected builds include version 6.1.5 or the referenced affected commit.
- Review workflows that use radare2 remote GDB client functionality.
- Confirm remediation against the upstream issue and patch reference.
- Monitor vendor and CVE records for updated affected-version guidance.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-416: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-8696 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.7 (4.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
2 official scoresWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N——VulnCheckCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6VulnCheckVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
8.7HighVector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/radareorg/radare2/issues/25836CVE reference, VulnCheck · issue-tracking
- https://github.com/radareorg/radare2/commit/c213ad6894a1eb9086ac8bf5fae35757e9e1683cCVE reference, VulnCheck · patch
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/radare2-use-after-free-via-gdbr-pids-listCVE reference, VulnCheck · third-party-advisory
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Use After Free
Use After Free represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.