Buffer overflow in GNU C Library (glibc) - CVE-2015-1473
Published: November 28, 2016 / Updated: June 3, 2025
Vulnerability identifier: #VU110108
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 6.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2015-1473
CWE-ID: CWE-119
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote non-authenticated attacker to manipulate or delete data.
The ADDW macro in stdio-common/vfscanf.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) before 2.21 does not properly consider data-type size during a risk-management decision for use of the alloca function, which might allow context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation violation) or overwrite memory locations beyond the stack boundary via a long line containing wide characters that are improperly handled in a wscanf call.
Affected software
GNU C Library (glibc)
How to mitigate CVE-2015-1473
Install update from vendor's website.
GNU C Library (glibc) - update to 2.21
External References
- http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/02/04/1
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinoct2015-2719645.html
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/72499
- http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2519-1
- https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=glibc.git;a=commit;h=5bd80bfe9ca0d955bfbbc002781bc7b01b6bcb06