CVE-2023-3138

HIGHCVSS 7.5/10EPSS 1.66%

Last modified

CVE-2023-3138 is a high-severity vulnerability rated 7.5/10 on the CVSS scale. A vulnerability was found in libX11. The security flaw occurs because the functions in src/InitExt.c in libX11 do not check that the values provided for the Request, Event, or Error IDs are within the bounds of the arrays that those functions write to, using those IDs as array indexes. EPSS estimates a 1.66% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Description

A vulnerability was found in libX11. The security flaw occurs because the functions in src/InitExt.c in libX11 do not check that the values provided for the Request, Event, or Error IDs are within the bounds of the arrays that those functions write to, using those IDs as array indexes. They trust that they were called with values provided by an Xserver adhering to the bounds specified in the X11 protocol, as all X servers provided by X.Org do. As the protocol only specifies a single byte for these values, an out-of-bounds value provided by a malicious server (or a malicious proxy-in-the-middle) can only overwrite other portions of the Display structure and not write outside the bounds of the Display structure itself, possibly causing the client to crash with this memory corruption.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
7.5/10

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

EPSS Probability
1.66%

73.6th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

Affected Software

VendorProductVersions
X.OrgLibx11< 1.8.6
RedhatEnterprise Linux8.0
RedhatEnterprise Linux9.0

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Modified

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-3138?
A vulnerability was found in libX11. The security flaw occurs because the functions in src/InitExt.c in libX11 do not check that the values provided for the Request, Event, or Error IDs are within the bounds of the arrays that those functions write to, using those IDs as array indexes. They trust that they were called with values provided by an Xserver adhering to the bounds specified in the X11 protocol, as all X servers provided by X.Org do. As the protocol only specifies a single byte for these values, an out-of-bounds value provided by a malicious server (or a malicious proxy-in-the-middle) can only overwrite other portions of the Display structure and not write outside the bounds of the Display structure itself, possibly causing the client to crash with this memory corruption.
How severe is CVE-2023-3138?
CVE-2023-3138 has a CVSS score of 7.5/10 (HIGH severity). The EPSS model estimates a 1.66% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2023-3138?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

Are you affected by CVE-2023-3138?

Run a free Strix scan to check your systems for this vulnerability.

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Source: NVD / NIST