CVE-2017-16879
HighCVSS 7.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
High risk82th percentile - higher than 82% of all known CVEs
Summary
In ncurses 6.0, a stack-based buffer overflow was found in the _nc_write_entry function of tinfo/write_entry.c. Attackers can cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted terminfo file, as demonstrated by tic.
Risk Assessment
An attacker can remotely crash applications or gain control by supplying a malicious terminfo file.
Recommendation
Update ncurses to a patched version and avoid processing untrusted terminfo files.
Other vulnerabilities in ncurses
See all- CVE-2017-10685Critical
In ncurses 6.0, a format string vulnerability exists in the fmt_entry function. A crafted input can lead to remote arbitrary code execution.
- CVE-2017-10684Critical
In ncurses 6.0, there is a stack-based buffer overflow in the fmt_entry function. A crafted input can lead to remote arbitrary code execution.
- CVE-2020-19190Medium
A buffer overflow vulnerability was found in ncurses 6.1 in the _nc_find_entry function in tinfo/comp_hash.c:70. A remote attacker can cause a denial of service (DoS) by sending a crafted command.
- CVE-2020-19189Medium
In ncurses 6.1, a buffer overflow vulnerability in the postprocess_terminfo function in tinfo/parse_entry.c:997 allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service via a crafted command.
- CVE-2020-19188Medium
A buffer overflow vulnerability was found in ncurses 6.1 in the fmt_entry function in progs/dump_entry.c:1116. A remote attacker can cause a denial of service (DoS) by sending a crafted command.
- CVE-2020-19187Medium
A buffer overflow vulnerability was found in ncurses 6.1 in the fmt_entry function in progs/dump_entry.c:1100. A remote attacker can cause a denial of service (DoS) by sending a crafted command.
- CVE-2020-19186Medium
A buffer overflow vulnerability was detected in ncurses version 6.1 in the _nc_find_entry function in tinfo/comp_hash.c:66. A remote attacker can cause a denial of service via a crafted command.
- CVE-2020-19185Medium
A buffer overflow vulnerability was found in ncurses 6.1 in the one_one_mapping function in progs/dump_entry.c:1373. A remote attacker can cause a denial of service (DoS) by sending a crafted command.
- CVE-2023-29491High
A vulnerability in ncurses before version 6.4 20230408 allows local users to trigger security-relevant memory corruption via malformed data in a terminfo database file located in $HOME/.terminfo or accessed via the TERMINFO or TERM environment variable, when used by a setuid application.
- CVE-2022-29458High
In the ncurses library version 6.3 before patch 20220416, an out-of-bounds read and segmentation violation exist in the convert_strings function in tinfo/read_entry.c of the terminfo library.
Original NVD description (English source)
Stack-based buffer overflow in the _nc_write_entry function in tinfo/write_entry.c in ncurses 6.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted terminfo file, as demonstrated by tic.