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Vulnerability record · CVE-2023-29491 · published 14 April 2023

CVE-2023-29491: Invisible-island ncurses out-of-bounds write vulnerability

Invisible Island · Ncurses

ncurses before 6.4 20230408, when used by a setuid application, allows local users to trigger security-relevant memory corruption via malformed data in a terminfo database file that is found in $HOME/.terminfo or reached via the TERMINFO or TERM environment variable.

7.8 CVSS 3.1 High EPSS 0.93% · top 40.9% CWE-787 · Out-of-bounds write
7.8CVSS 3.1 base score
0.93%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
23References, 2 tagged exploit
27 Jul 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

ncurses before 6.4 20230408, when used by a setuid application, allows local users to trigger security-relevant memory corruption via malformed data in a terminfo database file that is found in $HOME/.terminfo or reached via the TERMINFO or TERM environment variable.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=eb51b1ea1f75a0ec17c9c5937cb28df1e8eeec56
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/19/10 Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/19/11 ExploitMailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/12/msg00004.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/LU4MYMKFEZQ5VSCVLRIZGDQ
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230517-0009/
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213843
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213844
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213845
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/12/5 Mailing List
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/13/4 Mailing ListPatch
http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=eb51b1ea1f75a0ec17c9c5937cb28df1e8eeec56
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/19/10 Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/19/11 ExploitMailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/12/msg00004.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/LU4MYMKFEZQ5VSCVLRIZGDQ
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/LU4MYMKFEZQ5VSCVLRIZGDQOU
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230517-0009/
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213843
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213844
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213845
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/12/5 Mailing List
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/13/4 Mailing ListPatch

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

9.8CVE-2017-10684Invisible-island ncurses memory buffer overflow vulnerabilityIn ncurses 6.0, there is a stack-based buffer overflow in the fmt_entry function. A crafted input will lead to a remote arbitrary code execution atta…EPSS 4.9%9.8CVE-2017-10685Invisible-island ncurses vulnerabilityIn ncurses 6.0, there is a format string vulnerability in the fmt_entry function. A crafted input will lead to a remote arbitrary code execution atta…EPSS 4.3%8.8CVE-2021-39537Invisible-island ncurses out-of-bounds write vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in ncurses through v6.2-1. _nc_captoinfo in captoinfo.c has a heap-based buffer overflow.EPSS 3.2%7.8CVE-2025-69720Invisible-island ncurses stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilityThe infocmp command-line tool in ncurses before 6.5-20251213 has a stack-based buffer overflow in analyze_string in progs/infocmp.c.EPSS 0.45%7.8CVE-2017-16879Invisible-island ncurses out-of-bounds write vulnerabilityStack-based buffer overflow in the _nc_write_entry function in tinfo/write_entry.c in ncurses 6.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (appl…EPSS 2.4%7.5CVE-2017-13728Invisible-island ncurses vulnerabilityThere is an infinite loop in the next_char function in comp_scan.c in ncurses 6.0, related to libtic. A crafted input will lead to a remote denial of…EPSS 3.9%7.5CVE-2017-11112Invisible-island ncurses improper input validation vulnerabilityIn ncurses 6.0, there is an attempted 0xffffffffffffffff access in the append_acs function of tinfo/parse_entry.c. It could lead to a remote denial o…EPSS 2.2%7.5CVE-2017-11113Invisible-island ncurses null pointer dereference vulnerabilityIn ncurses 6.0, there is a NULL Pointer Dereference in the _nc_parse_entry function of tinfo/parse_entry.c. It could lead to a remote denial of servi…EPSS 2.4%

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2023-29491), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-29). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.