Cyber Resilience

CVE-2017-13089

Memory Safety in Debian Linux 8.0 … 9.0

High EPSSMemory Safety
Published
27 October 2017
Modified
20 April 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.80 99.6th percentile
Risk Priority 87 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2017-13089 is a high-severity Stack-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-121) vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The http.c:skip_short_body() function is called in some circumstances, such as when processing redirects. When the response is sent chunked in wget before 1.19.2, the chunk parser uses strtol() to read each chunk's length, but doesn't check that the chunk length…

more

is a non-negative number. The code then tries to skip the chunk in pieces of 512 bytes by using the MIN() macro, but ends up passing the negative chunk length to connect.c:fd_read(). As fd_read() takes an int argument, the high 32 bits of the chunk length are discarded, leaving fd_read() with a completely attacker controlled length argument.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

Likely ATT&CK TechniquesAI

Techniques this vulnerability likely enables, inferred from its description, weakness type, and attributed-actor tradecraft. Confidence is per-technique.

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Executionconfidence: HIGH
Negative chunk length passed to fd_read enables attacker-controlled buffer read leading to client-side exploitation.
inferred from description + CWE · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-68615Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-26883Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-52434Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-33599Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-1553Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-3864Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-0770Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-3887Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-0330Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-0840Same vendor: Gnu

Affected Assets

gnu
wget
≤ 1.19.1
debian
debian linux
8.0, 9.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-119

Ongoing control assessments and code testing (static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing) surface memory buffer restriction failures, which are then remediated before release.

addresses: CWE-119

Managed runtimes used by platform-independent applications (e.g., JVM, CLR) enforce memory safety, preventing most buffer overflows that require direct memory manipulation.

addresses: CWE-119

Memory protections (e.g., W^X, ASLR) make exploitation of buffer-boundary violations far harder to turn into code execution.

addresses: CWE-119

Detects exploitation attempts that produce memory corruption, crashes, or anomalous behavior.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices directly prevent introduction of stack buffer overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning can discover stack buffer overflows but does not prevent their introduction.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching eliminates known instances of the weakness after discovery.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

detects

Security testing (fuzzing, static analysis) detects stack overflows before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates buffer-safety practices that directly prevent stack overflows.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify buffer-size and input-validation rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety and least-privilege stack usage.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer handling that causes CWE-121.

none

Change-management gates can enforce security reviews that catch buffer issues.

References