CVE-2023-29491
HighCVSS 7.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Elevated risk57th percentile - higher than 57% of all known CVEs
Summary
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.
Risk Assessment
Local attackers can exploit this vulnerability for privilege escalation or system destabilization, posing a risk to data confidentiality and integrity.
Recommendation
Update ncurses to version 6.4 or later and avoid using setuid with applications that rely on ncurses.
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-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.
- CVE-2021-39537High
The ncurses library up to version v6.2-1 contains a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the _nc_captoinfo function in captoinfo.c.
Original NVD description (English source)
ncurses before 6.4 20230408, when used by a setuid application, allows local users to trigger security-relevant memory corruption via malformed data in a terminfo database file that is found in $HOME/.terminfo or reached via the TERMINFO or TERM environment variable.

