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Enterprise Linux Desktop SupplementaryOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2014-7923

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-01-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 55.1 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
The Regular Expressions package in International Components for Unicode (ICU) 52 before SVN revision 292944, as used in Google Chrome before 40.0.2214.91, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) or possibly have unspecified other impact via vectors related to a look-behind expression.

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 confidence

Memory corruption vulnerability in the ICU library's Regular Expressions package when processing look-behind expressions. The flaw allows remote attackers to cause denial of service or potentially achieve arbitrary code execution via specially crafted regex patterns.

MitigationUpdate International Components for Unicode (ICU) to revision 292944 or later, and update Google Chrome to version 40.0.2214.91 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

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
Enterprise Linux Desktop SupplementaryOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Enterprise Linux Server SupplementaryOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Enterprise Linux Server Supplementary EusOperating system
Affected:= 6.6.z
Enterprise Linux Workstation SupplementaryOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 14.04= 14.10
ChromeWeb browser
Affected:<= 40.0.2214.85
OpensuseOperating system
Affected:= 13.1= 13.2
International Components For UnicodeApplication
Affected:< 55.1

CVSS 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
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the ICU library version installed
    Run `pkg-config --modversion icu-i18n` or `icu-config --version` on Linux systems. On RHEL/CentOS use `rpm -q icu`. On Ubuntu/Debian use `dpkg -l | grep icu`. On Chrome, check chrome://version or about:chrome
    Affected if The reported version is lower than 55.1 (for example, 54.x, 53.x, etc.)
  2. Confirm the application uses the Regular Expressions package
    Review application code, scripts, or configuration files to identify if the application processes regex patterns. This vulnerability specifically affects the regex engine within ICU.
    Affected if The application or service processes user-supplied or data-driven regex patterns using the ICU library
  3. Identify if look-behind assertions are in use
    Search codebase for regex patterns containing look-behind syntax: (?<=...) for positive look-behind or (?<!...) for negative look-behind. Check application logs or documentation for regex pattern usage.
    Affected if The regex patterns processed include look-behind assertions (the \(?< or \(?<! syntax) which trigger the vulnerable code path
  4. Verify Google Chrome version if applicable
    Navigate to chrome://version or check the installed package version. On Linux, run `google-chrome --version` or check the package manager
    Affected if Chrome version is 40.0.2214.85 or earlier

You are affected if you have ICU version below 55.1 AND your system processes regex patterns containing look-behind assertions, or if you use Chrome 40.0.2214.85 or earlier.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 55.1 or later
Fixed in 55.1
Interim mitigation

Update International Components for Unicode (ICU) to revision 292944 or later, and update Google Chrome to version 40.0.2214.91 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

Fix this in Enterprise Linux Desktop Supplementary Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-7923 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data