Vulnerability Report

CVE-2017-16879

Title: Gnu Ncurses RCE

Memory Corruption

Proof Of Concept

No public PoC currently indexed for CVE-2017-16879.

CWE Category CWE-787

Published Date Nov 22, 2017

Modified Date Jul 23, 2026

Exploit Status Not Found

Score 7.8 CVSS v3.1

Exploit Probability (EPSS)

2.38%

Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2017-16879: 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.

Impacted Vendors

ncurses_project 1

invisible-island 1

gnu 1

Reference Links

http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20171125 http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/145045/GNU-ncurses-6.0-tic-Denial-Of-Service.html https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201804-13 https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/viewAlert.x?alertId=57695 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20171125 http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/145045/GNU-ncurses-6.0-tic-Denial-Of-Service.html https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201804-13 https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/viewAlert.x?alertId=57695

CVSS v3.1

Source Entity [email protected]

Severity HIGH

7.8

Attack Vector

LOCAL

Complexity

LOW

Privileges

N/A

Interaction

REQUIRED

Confidentiality

N/A

Integrity

N/A

Availability

N/A

Scope

UNCHANGED

RAW VECTOR CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0

Source Entity [email protected]

Severity MEDIUM

6.8

Access Vector

N/A

Authentication

N/A

RAW VECTOR AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Associated Attack Patterns (CAPEC)

Total: Patterns