Description
The keycompare_mb function in sort.c in sort in GNU Coreutils through 8.23 on 64-bit platforms performs a size calculation without considering the number of bytes occupied by multibyte characters, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via long UTF-8 strings.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 12 | coreutils | 8.22-9.1 | SUSE-SU-2015:1637-1 |
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES for SAP 12 | coreutils | 8.22-9.1 | SUSE-SU-2015:1637-1 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | coreutils | 8.26-1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2024:10390-1 |
Advisories 2
- openSUSE-SU-2024:10390-1 coreutils-8.26-1.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2015:1637-1 Security update for coreutils SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026