CVE-2023-4039: arm ltd arm gnu toolchain Protection Mechanism Failure

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-4039 is a medium (CVSS 4.8) Protection Mechanism Failure vulnerability in arm ltd arm gnu toolchain. EPSS estimates a 1.04% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 63.3% of scored vulnerabilities. 2 public exploits are recorded.

Timeline

1. 13-09-2023
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 14-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

**DISPUTED**A failure in the -fstack-protector feature in GCC-based toolchains that target AArch64 allows an attacker to exploit an existing buffer overflow in dynamically-sized local variables in your application without this being detected. This stack-protector failure only applies to C99-style dynamically-sized local variables or those created using alloca(). The stack-protector operates as intended for statically-sized local variables. The default behavior when the stack-protector detects an overflow is to terminate your application, resulting in controlled loss of availability. An attacker who can exploit a buffer overflow without triggering the stack-protector might be able to change program flow control to cause an uncontrolled loss of availability or to go further and affect confidentiality or integrity. NOTE: The GCC project argues that this is a missed hardening bug and not a vulnerability by itself.

• CWE-693Protection Mechanism FailureThe product does not use or incorrectly uses a protection mechanism that provides sufficient defense against directed attacks against the product.