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Critical · 9.0 CVE-2026-34987 GHSA-xx5w-cvp6-jv83RUSTSEC-2026-0095

Wasmtime with Winch compiler backend on aarch64 may allow a sandbox-escaping memory access

Published Apr 9, 2026 · Updated Apr 10, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

Wasmtime is a runtime for WebAssembly. From 25.0.0 to before 36.0.7, 42.0.2, and 43.0.1, Wasmtime with its Winch (baseline) non-default compiler backend may allow properly constructed guest Wasm to access host memory outside of its linear-memory sandbox. This vulnerability requires use of the Winch compiler (-Ccompiler=winch). By default, Wasmtime uses its Cranelift backend, not Winch. With Winch, the same incorrect assumption is present in theory on both aarch64 and x86-64. The aarch64 case has an observed-working proof of concept, while the x86-64 case is theoretical and may not be reachable in practice. This Winch compiler bug can allow the Wasm guest to access memory before or after the linear-memory region, independently of whether pre- or post-guard regions are configured. The accessible range in the initial bug proof-of-concept is up to 32KiB before the start of memory, or ~4GiB after the start of memory, independently of the size of pre- or post-guard regions or the use of explicit or guard-region-based bounds checking. However, the underlying bug assumes a 32-bit memory offset stored in a 64-bit register has its upper bits cleared when it may not, and so closely related variants of the initial proof-of-concept may be able to access truly arbitrary memory in-process. This could result in a host process segmentation fault (DoS), an arbitrary data leak from the host process, or with a write, potentially an arbitrary RCE. This vulnerability is fixed in 36.0.7, 42.0.2, and 43.0.1.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
bytecodealliance wasmtime >= 25.0.0, < 36.0.7, >= 37.0.0, < 42.0.2, >= 43.0.0, < 44.0.1 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 rust-wasmtime 36.0.7+dfsg-1 —
Debian 13 rust-wasmtime No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 rust-wasmtime No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS rust-wasmtime No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 rust-wasmtime No fix yet —

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling wash No fix yet —
Wolfi rolling wasmcloud 2.0.4-r0 —
Wolfi rolling wizer 11.0.3-r10 —
Wolfi rolling yara-x 1.15.0-r2 —
Wolfi rolling zed 0.228.0-r3 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
crates.io wasmtime >= 25.0.0, < 36.0.7 36.0.7 GHSA-xx5w-cvp6-jv83
crates.io wasmtime >= 37.0.0, < 42.0.2 42.0.2 GHSA-xx5w-cvp6-jv83
crates.io wasmtime >= 43.0.0, < 43.0.1 43.0.1 GHSA-xx5w-cvp6-jv83
crates.io wasmtime >= 0.0.0-0, < 36.0.7 · >= 37.0.0, < 42.0.2 · >= 43.0.0, < 43.0.1 36.0.7, 42.0.2, 43.0.1 RUSTSEC-2026-0095

References