CVE-2026-41197 json
Brillig: Heap corruption in foreign call results with nested tuple arrays
published 2026-04-21 6 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-jj7c-x25r-r8r3 , EUVD-2026-25156
- cvss
- 9.3
- version 4.0, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.4%
- EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 33%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
Noir is a Domain Specific Language for SNARK proving systems that is designed to use any ACIR compatible proving system, and Brillig is the bytecode ACIR uses for non-determinism. Noir programs can invoke external functions through foreign calls. When compiling to Brillig bytecode, the SSA instructions are processed block-by-block in `BrilligBlock::compile_block()`. When the compiler encounters an `Instruction::Call` with a `Value::ForeignFunction` target, it invokes `codegen_call()` in `brillig_call/code_gen_call.rs`, which dispatches to `convert_ssa_foreign_call()`. Before emitting the foreign call opcode, the compiler must pre-allocate memory for any array results the call will return. This happens through `allocate_external_call_results()`, which iterates over the result types. For `Type::Array` results, it delegates to `allocate_foreign_call_result_array()` to recursively allocate memory on the heap for nested arrays. The `BrilligArray` struct is the internal representation of a Noir array in Brillig IR. Its `size` field represents the semi-flattened size, the total number of memory slots the array occupies, accounting for the fact that composite types like tuples consume multiple slots per element. This size is computed by `compute_array_length()` in `brillig_block_variables.rs`. For the outer array, `allocate_external_call_results()` correctly uses `define_variable()`, which internally calls `allocate_value_with_type()`. This function applies the formula above, producing the correct semi-flattened size. However, for nested arrays, `allocate_foreign_call_result_array()` contains a bug. The pattern `Type::Array(_, nested_size)` discards the inner types with `_` and uses only `nested_size`, the semantic length of the nested array (the number of logical elements), not the semi-flattened size. For simple element types this works correctly, but for composite element types it under-allocates. Foreign calls returning nested arrays of tuples or other composite types corrupt the Brillig VM heap. Version 1.0.0-beta.19 fixes this issue.
Patch / fix
CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- yes
- Technical impact
- total
- Assessed
- 6 mo ago
Exploit prediction
0.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 33% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 4.0 | 9.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| CNA | 4.0 | 9.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
Affected packages
| ecosystem | package | affected | fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| crates.io | brillig | <1.0.0-beta.19 |
1.0.0-beta.19 |
Affected products
- noir-lang noir
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-131 Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size
References
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-41197
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-jj7c-x25r-r8r3
- NVD CVE-2026-41197
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