CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2015-9238

Use of Externally-Controlled Format String

Published: May 31, 2018 | Modified: Oct 09, 2019
CVSS 3.x
5.3
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS 2.x
5 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

secure-compare 3.0.0 and below do not actually compare two strings properly. compare was actually comparing the first argument with itself, meaning the check passed for any two strings of the same length.

Weakness

The product uses a function that accepts a format string as an argument, but the format string originates from an external source.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Secure-compare Secure-compare_project * 3.0.1 (excluding)

Extended Description

When an attacker can modify an externally-controlled format string, this can lead to buffer overflows, denial of service, or data representation problems. It should be noted that in some circumstances, such as internationalization, the set of format strings is externally controlled by design. If the source of these format strings is trusted (e.g. only contained in library files that are only modifiable by the system administrator), then the external control might not itself pose a vulnerability.

Potential Mitigations

References