PCRE2 10.23 Regular Expression pcre2test.c memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in PCRE2 10.23. This affects an unknown part of the file pcre2test.c of the component Regular Expression Handler. The manipulation leads to memory corruption. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2017-8786. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in PCRE2 10.23 (Programming Tool Software). This issue affects some unknown processing of the file pcre2test.c of the component Regular Expression Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input 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:

pcre2test.c in PCRE2 10.23 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression.

The bug was discovered 04/29/2017. The weakness was presented 05/05/2017 (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at blogs.gentoo.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2017-8786 since 05/04/2017. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 5 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 103727 (GLSA-201710-09 : PCRE2: Multiple vulnerabilities), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Gentoo Local Security Checks and running in the context l.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published 6 months after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (103727). See VDB-100791 for similar entry. Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Programming Tool Software

Name

• PCRE2

Version

• 10.23

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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