Description
The setcred(2) system call is only available to privileged users. However, before the privilege level of the caller is checked, the user-supplied list of supplementary groups is copied into a fixed-size kernel stack buffer without first validating its length. If the supplied list exceeds the capacity of that buffer, a stack buffer overflow occurs.
Because the bounds check on the supplementary groups list occurs after the kernel stack buffer has already been written, an unprivileged local user may trigger the overflow without holding any special privilege. Successful exploitation may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the kernel, allowing an unprivileged local user to gain elevated privileges on the affected system.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| FreeBSD | FreeBSD | 15.0-RELEASE – < p9, 14.4-RELEASE – < p5, 14.3-RELEASE – < p14 | p9 |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
GitHub 1 repository
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venglin/setcred ★ 22 · May 21, 2026
CVE-2026-45250: FreeBSD 14.4 setcred kernel buffer overflow (LPE)
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Advisories 1
- WID-SEC-2026-1628 FreeBSD Project FreeBSD OS: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · May 21, 2026