Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2017-9052: Libdwarf Project: Buffer overflow

CVE-2017-9052 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 and affects Libdwarf Project. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

An issue, also known as DW201703-006, was discovered in libdwarf 2017-03-21. A heap-based buffer over-read in dwarf_formsdata() is due to a failure to check a pointer for being in bounds (in a few places in this function) and a failure in a check in dwarf_attr_list().

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 9.8: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-119: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary.

CWE-125: Out-of-bounds Read

The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Affected products

  • Libdwarf Project: 2017-03-21

References