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Vulnerability record · CVE-2017-20205 · published 15 October 2025

CVE-2017-20205: Stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability

Valve's Source SDK (source-sdk-2013)'s ragdoll model parsing logic contains a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability.The tokenizer function `nexttoken` copies characters from an input string into a fixed-size stack buffer without performing bounds checks. When `ParseKeyValue` processes a collisionpair rule longer than the destination buffer (256 bytes), an overflow of the stack buffer `szToken` can occur and overwrite the function return address. A remote attacker can trigger the vulnerable code by supplying a specially crafted ragdoll model which causes the oversized collisionpair rule to be parsed, resulting in remote code execution on affected clients or servers. Valve has addressed this issue in many of their Source games, but independently-developed games must manually apply patch.

9.2 CVSS 4.0 Critical EPSS 0.69% · top 49.0% CWE-121 · Stack-based buffer overflow Deferred
9.2CVSS 4.0 base score
0.69%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
0Affected product versions listed by NVD
3References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

Valve's Source SDK (source-sdk-2013)'s ragdoll model parsing logic contains a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability.The tokenizer function `nexttoken` copies characters from an input string into a fixed-size stack buffer without performing bounds checks. When `ParseKeyValue` processes a collisionpair rule longer than the destination buffer (256 bytes), an overflow of the stack buffer `szToken` can occur and overwrite the function return address. A remote attacker can trigger the vulnerable code by supplying a specially crafted ragdoll model which causes the oversized collisionpair rule to be parsed, resulting in remote code execution on affected clients or servers. Valve has addressed this issue in many of their Source games, but independently-developed games must manually apply patch.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:

References

LinkTags
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013
https://www.oneupsecurity.com/research/remote-code-execution-in-source-games/
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/valve-source-sdk-stack-based-buffer-overflow-rce

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2017-20205), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.