CVE-2008-3916: gnu ed

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2008-3916 is a high (CVSS 9.3) vulnerability in gnu ed. EPSS estimates a 3.60% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 04-09-2008
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 07-08-2024
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Heap-based buffer overflow in the strip_escapes function in signal.c in GNU ed before 1.0 allows context-dependent or user-assisted attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long filename. NOTE: since ed itself does not typically run with special privileges, this issue only crosses privilege boundaries when ed is invoked as a third-party component.

• CWE-119Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory BufferThe product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary. This may result in read or write operations on unexpected memory locations that could be linked to other variables, data structures, or internal program data.