Wasmtime: Bit-packing in Cranelift compiler causes silent overflow and miscompilation (CVE-2026-115889)
Published Last modified Sources: pwn.watch, Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org, OSV, Hersteller
What is affected, what to do
Wasmtime is a runtime for WebAssembly. Prior to 36.0.19 and 43.0.0, the Cranelift compiler backend bit-packs SSA value indices in a way that can silently overflow in release builds when compiling a sufficiently large or specially crafted Wasm function with many SSA values.
Update Bytecode Alliance wasmtime to version 36.0.19.
- Affected
- Bytecode Alliance wasmtime
gte 37.0.0, < 43.0.0..* - Bytecode Alliance wasmtime
lt *..36.0.19
- Bytecode Alliance wasmtime
- Fixed in
- Bytecode Alliance wasmtime
36.0.19
- Bytecode Alliance wasmtime
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Metrics
9.9
Priority
XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3
9.9
CVSS v3
Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: pwn.watch, Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org, OSV, Hersteller
0.4 %
EPSS score
Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 39.3
Show all metrics
- Severity
- Critical
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 91.86 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
XIEM Effective CVSS
XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.
Read in glossary- 9.9 Methodology
CVSS v3
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 9.9
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 0.4 %
- Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 39.3
- High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
- CISA assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: total
- Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 26 October 2026
CWE
CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.
Read in glossary- CWE-197, CWE-843
Detection rules
No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
Wasmtime is a runtime for WebAssembly. Prior to 36.0.19 and 43.0.0, the Cranelift compiler backend bit-packs SSA value indices in a way that can silently overflow in release builds when compiling a sufficiently large or specially crafted Wasm function with many SSA values. The overflow can make Cranelift reference incorrect IR values, causing arbitrary miscompilation, type confusion, and other attacker-controlled effects that may escape the Wasm sandbox on any architecture using the default Cranelift backend. This issue is fixed in versions 36.0.19 and 43.0.0.
Source: pwn.watch, Microsoft Security Update Guide, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities), CVE.org (MITRE), GitHub Security Advisories
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| bytecodealliance | wasmtime |
|
|
| crates.io | wasmtime |
|
|
| rust | wasmtime |
|
|
Vendors and products
Weakness classes (CWE)
CWE-197Numeric Truncation Error
Base
Truncation errors occur when a primitive is cast to a primitive of a smaller size and data is lost in the conversion.
Entry at MITRE CWE-197CWE-843Access of Resource Using Incompatible Type ('Type Confusion')
Base
The product allocates or initializes a resource such as a pointer, object, or variable using one type, but it later accesses that resource using a type that is incompatible with the original type.
Entry at MITRE CWE-843
References & sources
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtime/security/advisories/GHSA-897f-g5gm-fm…x_refsource_CONFIRM, web, pwn-watch
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/12613x_refsource_MISC, web
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/14818x_refsource_MISC, web
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtime/commit/ba8f7d70caa1825b7f64fa75cd9d03…x_refsource_MISC, web
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtime/commit/f517bd6e890c7c1291ab9fe05d8cc0…x_refsource_MISC, web
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtime/releases/tag/v36.0.19x_refsource_MISC, web
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtime/releases/tag/v43.0.0x_refsource_MISC, web
- github.combytecodealliance/wasmtimepackage
- rustsec.orgadvisories/RUSTSEC-2026-0380.htmlweb, advisory
- crates.iocrates/wasmtimepackage
- pwn.watchpwn.watch: Wasmtime: two critical Cranelift miscompilation bugs let a malicious WebAssembly module escape the sandbox (CVE-2026-115889, CVE-2026-115893)pwn-watch
- github.comGHSA-mghf-wjfp-p5xm: Cranelift backend on aarch64 can jump to incorrect target on large Wasm br_table instructionpwn-watch
- thehackernews.comTwo Critical Wasmtime Flaws Could Let Malicious WebAssembly Modules Escape Sandboxespwn-watch
Changes to this CVE
Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).
Record modifiedCISA ADP
CISA assessment (SSVC): exploitation: none known, automatable: no
Show the original change
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After SSVC assessment added —{"id":"CVE-2026-115889","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"no"},{"technicalImpact":"total"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-10-26T15:40:36.390562Z"}Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
ReceivedGitHub
CVSS V3.1: AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness type: CWE-197, CWE-843
Description added or changed
New references:- https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/commit/ba8f7d70caa1825b7f64fa75cd9d03f4a438dae0
- https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/commit/f517bd6e890c7c1291ab9fe05d8cc0c9f11e56aa
- https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/12613
- https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/14818
and 3 more references
Show 12 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Description added —Wasmtime is a runtime for WebAssembly. Prior to 36.0.19 and 43.0.0, the Cranelift compiler backend bit-packs SSA value indices in a way that can silently overflow in release builds when compiling a sufficiently large or specially crafted Wasm function with many SSA values. The overflow can make Cranelift reference incorrect IR values, causing arbitrary miscompilation, type confusion, and other attacker-controlled effects that may escape the Wasm sandbox on any architecture using the default Cranelift backend. This issue is fixed in versions 36.0.19 and 43.0.0.CVSS added —AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HWeakness type (CWE) added —CWE-197Weakness type (CWE) added —CWE-843Affected versions (publisher) added —New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/115xxx/CVE-2026-115889.json">CVE-2026-115889</a>Reference added —https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/commit/ba8f7d70caa1825b7f64fa75cd9d03f4a438dae0Reference added —https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/commit/f517bd6e890c7c1291ab9fe05d8cc0c9f11e56aaReference added —https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/12613Reference added —https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/14818Reference added —https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/releases/tag/v36.0.19Reference added —https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/releases/tag/v43.0.0Reference added —https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/security/advisories/GHSA-897f-g5gm-fmxmSource identifier: security-advisories@github.com
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