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GNU libc regcomp() stack exhaustion denial of service

Vulnerability Note VU#912279

Original Release Date: 2010-12-07 | Last Revised: 2010-12-08

Overview

The regcomp() function of GNU libc is susceptible to stack exhaustion which may result in a denial of service.

Description

It is possible to trigger deep recursion which results in stack exhaustion. An example trigger is: grep -E ".*{10,}{10,}{10,}{10,}{10,}"

Impact

An attacker may be able to trigger a denial of service in applications that accept regular expressions.

Solution

We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem.

Vendor Information

912279
 

Debian GNU/Linux Affected

Notified:  October 22, 2010 Updated: December 07, 2010

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Gentoo Linux Affected

Notified:  October 22, 2010 Updated: December 07, 2010

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Red Hat, Inc. Affected

Notified:  October 22, 2010 Updated: December 07, 2010

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Slackware Linux Inc. Affected

Notified:  October 22, 2010 Updated: December 07, 2010

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Ubuntu Affected

Notified:  October 22, 2010 Updated: December 07, 2010

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.


CVSS Metrics

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References

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Maksymilian Arciemowicz for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Jared Allar.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2010-4051, CVE-2010-4052
Severity Metric: 0.18
Date Public: 2010-12-07
Date First Published: 2010-12-07
Date Last Updated: 2010-12-08 20:06 UTC
Document Revision: 13

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