Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2023-4255


An out-of-bounds write issue has been discovered in the backspace handling of the checkType() function in etc.c within the W3M application. This vulnerability is triggered by supplying a specially crafted HTML file to the w3m binary. Exploitation of this flaw could lead to application crashes, resulting in a denial of service condition.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 3 products from tats, from fedoraproject, from fedoraproject organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2023, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2023-12-21T16:15:10.017

Last Modified

2024-11-21T08:34:44.253

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 5.5 (MEDIUM)

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-787
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-787

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application tats w3m 0.5.3\+git20230121-1 Yes
Application tats w3m 0.5.3\+git20230121-2 Yes
Application tats w3m 0.5.3\+git20230129 Yes
Application fedoraproject extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux 8.0 Yes
Operating System fedoraproject fedora 39 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For tats's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.