CVE-2023-4039
Published: 13 September 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-4039 is a medium-severity Protection Mechanism Failure (CWE-693) vulnerability in Gnu Gcc. Its CVSS base score is 4.8 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked at the 40.1th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-53931
Vulnerability details
**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…
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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(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
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.
Implements a reliable, tamperproof protection mechanism whose completeness can be assured.
Procedures for training on protection mechanisms reduce the chance of protection mechanism failures being present or exploitable.
Documented procedures to implement assessment, authorization, and monitoring controls prevent these protection mechanisms from failing due to undefined processes.
Direct evaluation of whether controls produce desired security outcomes detects protection mechanism failures and enables remediation.
Requires assessment that protection mechanisms are correctly implemented and producing intended security outcomes.
The POA&M process ensures identified weaknesses in protection mechanisms are documented and scheduled for remediation, reducing the duration they remain exploitable.
Ongoing control assessments and analysis of monitoring data enable timely detection and response when protection mechanisms fail.
Impact analysis identifies changes that could weaken or disable existing protection mechanisms.