CVE-2026-51304
NVD analysis in progress
sqlite 3.41 has a use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability in the ORDER BY clause parsing routine. The affected code first releases the memory of an ExprList object via sqlite3ExprListDelete(), then attempts to access the nExpr member of the already freed object. This dangling pointer access causes invalid memory read operations. By constructing a malicious SQL statement containing an ORDER BY clause with a large number of items, a remote adversary can trigger this vulnerability. Successful exploitation can result in application crash (denial of service), leakage of sensitive memory contents, and under certain memory layout conditions, arbitrary code execution on the affected system.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network, without authentication and with no action from the victim.
- Impact
- An attacker can take the service offline.
- Weakness
- Already-freed memory is reused, letting the attacker reclaim it and hijack execution.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doFold into the next patch cycle. Start with the instances exposed to the internet.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.