Two vulnerabilities affect GNU Gzip versions up to and including 1.14. The first (CVE-2026-41991, CVSS 4.7) is a local symlink attack via predictable temporary file paths in the `gzexe` utility, potentially allowing arbitrary file overwrites. The second (CVE-2026-41992, CVSS 7.5) is a higher-severity flaw where processing malicious compressed files could lead to information disclosure or a denial-of-service crash.
It was discovered that Gzip's gzexe utility handled temporary files in an insecure manner. When the mktemp utility was not available, gzexe constructed a temporary file path based on the process ID, which could be predicted. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack. (CVE-2026-41991) It was discovered that Gzip incorrectly handled certain compressed files. An attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information or cause Gzip to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-41992)