CVE-2013-1998
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMultiple buffer overflows in X.org libXi 1.7.1 and earlier allow X servers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted length or index values to the (1) XGetDeviceButtonMapping, (2) XIPassiveGrabDevice, and (3) XQueryDeviceState functions.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceMultiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities exist in X.org libXi library versions 1.7.1 and earlier within three functions (XGetDeviceButtonMapping, XIPassiveGrabDevice, and XQueryDeviceState) that fail to properly validate length or index values, allowing crafted input to overflow buffers and potentially cause denial of service or arbitrary code execution.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 1.7.1= 1.5.0= 1.5.99.2= 1.5.99.3= 1.6.0= 1.6.1= 1.6.2= 1.6.99.1= 1.7CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed libXi library versionRun 'dpkg -l libxi-dev' on Debian/Ubuntu systems, or 'rpm -q libXi' on Red Hat/CentOS systems, or check the library file directly with 'strings /usr/lib/libXi.so.6 | grep -i version'Affected if The version returned is 1.7.1 or earlier, or matches any of these: 1.5.0, 1.5.99.2, 1.5.99.3, 1.6.0, 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.6.99.1, or 1.7
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Confirm X server is running and accessibleCheck if an X server process is running with 'ps aux | grep Xorg' or 'ps aux | grep XFree86', and verify it is listening for client connections with 'netstat -an | grep 6000' or 'ss -an | grep 6000'Affected if An X server is running and accepting connections on TCP port 6000 (or display :0, :1, etc), making it reachable to network clients
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Verify X server access control allows external clientsCheck the X server access control with 'xhost' command if you have access to the X session, or review X server configuration files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/X11/xdm/ for 'DisableTCP' or similar settingsAffected if The X server has TCP listening enabled or access control is not restricting connections to localhost only, allowing untrusted clients to send crafted requests
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Confirm libXi is loaded by X serverUse 'ldd' on the X server binary (such as 'ldd /usr/bin/Xorg') to verify it links against libXi, or check loaded modules with 'xdpyinfo' if availableAffected if The X server binary depends on libXi and the library is loaded into memory
Your environment is affected if libXi version 1.7.1 or earlier is installed AND an X server is running and accessible to untrusted clients who can send crafted requests to the vulnerable functions.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate libXi to a version newer than 1.7.1 with appropriate security patches, and restrict X server access to trusted clients to reduce attack surface.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-1998 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-1998 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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