A vulnerability was found in Gnuplot 5.2.5 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function cairotrm_options of the file cairo.trm. The manipulation as part of a Argument leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

An issue was discovered in cairo.trm in Gnuplot 5.2.5. This issue allows an attacker to conduct a buffer overflow with an arbitrary amount of data in the cairotrm_options function. This flaw is caused by a missing size check of an argument passed to the "set font" function. This issue occurs when the Gnuplot pngcairo terminal is used as a backend.

The bug was discovered 11/20/2018. The weakness was published 11/23/2018 (Website). The advisory is shared at lists.debian.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2018-19492 since 11/23/2018. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 3 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 119123 (Debian DLA-1595-1 : gnuplot5 security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Debian Local Security Checks and running in the context l. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 176843 (Debian Security Update for gnuplot5 (DLA 1595-1)).

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published 2 days after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (119123). Similar entries are available at 127083 and 127084.

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• Gnuplot

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• 5.2.5

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