Inappropriate Encoding for Output Context Affecting glibc package, versions [,2.44)
Threat Intelligence
The probability is the direct output of the EPSS model, and conveys an overall sense of the threat of exploitation in the wild. The percentile measures the EPSS probability relative to all known EPSS scores. Note: This data is updated daily, relying on the latest available EPSS model version. Check out the EPSS documentation for more details.
Do your applications use this vulnerable package?
In a few clicks we can analyze your entire application and see what components are vulnerable in your application, and suggest you quick fixes.
Test your applications- Snyk IDSNYK-UNMANAGED-GLIBC-15857079
- published31 Mar 2026
- disclosed20 Mar 2026
- creditAntonio Maini
Introduced: 20 Mar 2026
CVE-2026-4438 (opens in a new tab)How to fix?
Upgrade glibc to version 2.44 or higher.
Overview
Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Inappropriate Encoding for Output Context in the gethostbyaddr or gethostbyaddr_r functions when a nsswitch.conf configuration specifies the DNS backend. An attacker can cause applications to receive incorrect hostname information by triggering a reverse DNS lookup that returns an invalid DNS hostname. This is only exploitable if the system is configured to use the DNS backend in nsswitch.conf for hostname resolution.