CVE-2023-6246
Memory Safety in Fedoraproject Fedora 38 … 39
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-6246 is a high-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora. Its CVSS base score is 8.4 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 8% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
A heap-based buffer overflow exists in the __vsyslog_internal function of the glibc library, which is invoked by the syslog and vsyslog functions. The flaw is triggered when openlog has not been called or was called with a NULL ident argument and the program name, derived from the basename of argv[0], exceeds 1024 bytes. It affects glibc versions 2.36 and later and carries a CVSS score of 8.4.
An unauthenticated local attacker can exploit the issue simply by executing a program whose name is longer than 1024 bytes and that invokes syslog or vsyslog without a prior openlog call. Successful exploitation may result in an application crash or local privilege escalation to root.
Public proof-of-concept code has been posted to Packet Storm and Full Disclosure, and the EPSS score has reached a peak of 0.2914 with a current value of 0.2696. No information on in-the-wild exploitation is provided in the available references.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-58491
Vulnerability Data
A heap-based buffer overflow was found in the __vsyslog_internal function of the glibc library. This function is called by the syslog and vsyslog functions. This issue occurs when the openlog function was not called, or called with the ident argument…
more
set to NULL, and the program name (the basename of argv[0]) is bigger than 1024 bytes, resulting in an application crash or local privilege escalation. This issue affects glibc 2.36 and newer.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V1.4.1
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and memory-error detectors) can discover heap overflows after they have been coded.
Input validation enforces bounds checking on data written to heap buffers, directly stopping the overflow condition from being introduced.
Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.
Security engineering principles require use of memory-safe constructs and bounds-checked allocation routines that avoid introducing heap overflows.
Memory-protection mechanisms limit the ability of a heap overflow to execute attacker-controlled code or corrupt adjacent structures.
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.
Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover heap-overflow flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.
Timely patching removes known heap-overflow instances after they exist.
Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.
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.