Weakness (CWE)
CWE-122: Heap-based Buffer Overflow
The product writes past the end of a buffer that was allocated on the heap.
How to prevent it (7 mitigations)
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Pre-design: Use a language or compiler that performs automatic bounds checking.
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Architecture and Design
Use an abstraction library to abstract away risky APIs. Not a complete solution.
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Operation, Build and Compilation
Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.
D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.
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Operation, Build and Compilation
Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program's executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.
Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as "rebasing" (for Windows) and "prelinking" (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.
For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].
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Implementation
Implement and perform bounds checking on input.
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Implementation
Do not use dangerous functions such as gets. Look for their safe equivalent, which checks for the boundary.
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Operation
Use OS-level preventative functionality. This is not a complete solution, but it provides some defense in depth.
Source: MITRE CWE-122
2,892 results · Clear filters · Feed
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High 8.8
An exploitable heap overflow exists in the TIFF parsing functionality of Canvas Draw version 4.0.0. A specially crafted…
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High 8.8
An exploitable heap overflow exists in the TIFF parsing functionality of Canvas Draw version 4.0.0. A specially crafted…
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High 7.3CVE-2018-1124 Public exploit
procps-ng before version 3.3.15 is vulnerable to multiple integer overflows leading to a heap corruption in file2strvec…
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High 7.5
389-ds-base before versions 1.4.0.9, 1.3.8.1, 1.3.6.15 did not properly handle long search filters with characters need…
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High 8.8CVE-2017-13090 EPSS 37%
GNU Wget: heap overflow in HTTP protocol handling
The retr.c:fd_read_body() function is called when processing OK responses. When the response is sent chunked in wget before 1.19.2, the chunk parser uses strtol() to read each chunk's length, but doesn't check that the chunk length is a non-negative number. T…
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High 7.5
Out-of-bounds read in nokogiri
libxml2 20904-GITv2.9.4-16-g0741801 is vulnerable to a heap-based buffer over-read in the xmlDictAddString function in dict.c. This vulnerability causes programs that use libxml2, such as PHP, to crash. This vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix f…
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High 8.8
LibTIFF version 4.0.7 is vulnerable to a heap buffer overflow in the tools/tiffcp resulting in DoS or code execution vi…
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High 7.8CVE-2016-1834 Public exploit
Heap-based buffer overflow in the xmlStrncat function in libxml2 before 2.9.4, as used in Apple iOS before 9.3.2, OS X …
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High 8.1
The xmlNextChar function in libxml2 before 2.9.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (heap-based buffe…
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High 7.8
Heap-based buffer overflow in Adobe Flash Player before 13.0.0.296 and 14.x through 18.x before 18.0.0.194 on Windows a…
KEV Apr 13, 2022 -
High 8.8CVE-2014-9495 Public exploit
Heap-based buffer overflow in the png_combine_row function in libpng before 1.5.21 and 1.6.x before 1.6.16, when runnin…
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High 8.8
Heap-based buffer overflow in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 7.x before 7.1.4, 8.x before 8.1.7, and 9.x before 9.2 allows re…
KEV May 20, 2026