Denial of service in GNU Less

1) Input validation error

EUVDB-ID: #VU72127

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 3.8 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2022-46663

CWE-ID: CWE-20 - Improper input validation

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to insufficient validation of the ANSI escape sequences in the "less -R" output. A remote attacker can trick the victim to run the command against the specially crafted data and perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

less: 566 - 608

External links

http://github.com/gwsw/less/commit/a78e1351113cef564d790a730d657a321624d79c
http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/news.609.html
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/02/07/7
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/02/07/7

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.