CVE-2026-63418
Monitoring Plugins check_icmp: -H argument count overflow leads in setuid-root binary
What happened?
Monitoring Plugins is a suite of plugins for monitoring applications. From 3.0.0-rc1 until 3.0.1, check_icmp stores the number of hosts supplied through -H or --Host on the command line, or through --extra-opts files containing Host= entries, in an unsigned short. More than 65,535 hosts wrap the counter, causing process_arguments() to allocate an undersized hosts array and then write subsequent entries out of bounds before main() calls setuid(getuid()). On installations where check_icmp is setuid root, a local low-privileged attacker can corrupt heap memory while the process still has root privileges; reliable privilege escalation has not been demonstrated. Installations that use cap_net_raw file capabilities instead of setuid are not exposed to the privilege-escalation consequence. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.1.
Affected software and versions
| Software | Version information | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| monitoring-pluginsmonitoring-plugins | affected: >= 3.0.0-rc1, < 3.0.1 | See vendor advisory |
Version information comes from the source record and can include unaffected products and exceptions. Distribution packages may contain backported fixes: an older upstream version alone does not prove a server is affected.
Is it being exploited?
This CVE was not listed in the CISA catalogue at our last retrieval. This does not establish that exploitation is absent.
How to respond
- Confirm the product, installed package version, and any configuration requirements in the vendor advisory.
- Follow the vendor’s remediation or workaround guidance in the references below. Structured fixed-version data is unavailable here; the publisher’s description may include a fix or workaround.
- Restart affected services if required, then verify the running version. Known exploitation may warrant investigation as well as patching.
Sources and remediation references
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-63418
- https://github.com/monitoring-plugins/monitoring-plugins/security/advisories/GHSA-xvvw-4j77-rp7q
- https://github.com/monitoring-plugins/monitoring-plugins/commit/c35c12e58d326ffbd6cfb3c9097653f9f3fb2f4a
- https://github.com/monitoring-plugins/monitoring-plugins/releases/tag/v3.0.1