# CVE-2026-100505: National Security Agency Ghidra heap out-of-bounds read in StringManager

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-100505-ghidra-versions-11-2-through-12-1-4-contain-a-heap-out-of-bounds  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-09-26. Updated: 2026-09-26  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-100505 · Severity: medium · CVSS 4.4 · Published 2026-09-26

Ghidra is a software reverse engineering framework used by security analysts to examine and understand binary code. The decompiler component fails to properly validate buffer lengths when decoding multi-byte UTF characters, allowing attackers to craft malicious binaries that crash the analysis tool or leak sensitive information from adjacent memory into decompiled output.

Technologies: [National Security Agency Ghidra](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/ghidra). Vendors: [National Security Agency](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/national-security-agency).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-100505 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-100505 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-100505?** Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 4.4, published 26 September 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** National Security Agency Ghidra 11.2 through 12.1.4.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-100505?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-100505 attacked?** It is attacked with local access, in a software library.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-100505?** Check whether you run National Security Agency Ghidra at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## Technical details

StringManager::getCodepoint in the decompiler lacks bounds checking before reading multi-byte UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 character sequences, leading to heap out-of-bounds reads. The vulnerability is triggered by processing binaries with specially crafted constant byte stores that end in multi-byte lead units without sufficient trailing bytes, exploitable through file-based analysis with no authentication required.

## Affected products

- National Security Agency Ghidra 11.2 through 12.1.4

## Timeline

- 2026-09-26: disclosed

## References

- [https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra](https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra)
- [https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/blob/8b6bbb857accdfa20dc5b2f5dea471178c2e9fbc/Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/src/decompile/cpp/stringmanage.cc](https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/blob/8b6bbb857accdfa20dc5b2f5dea471178c2e9fbc/Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/src/decompile/cpp/stringmanage.cc)

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- [Ghidra resource allocation without limits in extension extraction](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-115397-ghidra-before-12-2-contains-a-resource-allocation-without-limits)
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- [Ghidra resource exhaustion in theme ZIP extraction](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-115395-ghidra-10-3-before-12-2-contains-a-resource-allocation-without)
- [Ghidra stack-based buffer overflow in decompiler leftshift128 function](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-100504-ghidra-versions-through-12-1-4-contain-a-stack-based-out-of)