CVE-2017-16879

Publication date 22 November 2017

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Negligible

Why this priority?

Cvss 3 Severity Score

7.8 · High

Score breakdown

Description

Stack-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 (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted terminfo file, as demonstrated by tic.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Package Ubuntu Release Status
ncurses 22.04 LTS jammy
Not affected
21.10 impish
Not affected
21.04 hirsute
Not affected
20.10 groovy
Not affected
20.04 LTS focal
Not affected
19.10 eoan
Not affected
19.04 disco
Not affected
18.10 cosmic
Not affected
18.04 LTS bionic
Not affected
17.10 artful Ignored end of life
17.04 zesty Ignored end of life
16.04 LTS xenial
Fixed 6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2
14.04 LTS trusty
Fixed 5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2

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Notes

seth-arnold

The Debian bug suggests tic(1) is the only caller, in which case this would be a 'low' bug; I couldn't quickly verify this claim.

Severity score breakdown

Parameter Value
Base score 7.8 · High
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality High
Integrity impact High
Availability impact High
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)

Other references