CVE-2022-3491
Description
A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in Vim's skipwhite() function of the charset.c file. This issue occurs when reading data past the end of the line when compiling a function with errors. This could allows an attacker to trick a user into opening a specially crafted file, triggering an out-of-bounds read that causes an application to crash, leading to a denial of service.
Statement
Red Hat Product Security has rated this issue as having a Low security impact, because the "victim" has to run an untrusted file in script mode.
For additional information, refer to the Issue Severity Classification: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/ and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle & Updates Policy: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/.
Mitigation
Untrusted vim scripts with -s [scriptin] are not recommended to run.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.8 | 7.8 | 4 |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | None | None |
| User Interaction | Required | Required | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | High | None |
| Integrity Impact | High | High | None |
| Availability Impact | High | High | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
An attacker could get secret values such as cryptographic keys, PII, memory addresses, or other information that could be used in additional attacks.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
Out-of-bounds memory could contain memory addresses or other information that can be used to bypass ASLR and other protection mechanisms in order to improve the reliability of exploiting a separate weakness for code execution.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker could cause a segmentation fault or crash by causing memory to be read outside of the bounds of the buffer. This is especially likely when the code reads a variable amount of data and assumes that a sentinel exists to stop the read operation, such as a NUL in a string.
Other
Technical Impact: Varies by Context
The read operation could produce other undefined or unexpected results.
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