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Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2015-3258

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-07-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.0.70 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
Heap-based buffer overflow in the WriteProlog function in filter/texttopdf.c in texttopdf in cups-filters before 1.0.70 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a small line size in a print job.

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

Heap-based buffer overflow in the WriteProlog function in filter/texttopdf.c in cups-filters. The vulnerability is triggered by processing a print job with a small line size, leading to heap corruption that can cause denial of service or potentially allow arbitrary code execution.

MitigationUpgrade cups-filters to version 1.0.70 or later to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider restricting or validating print job inputs at the print spooler level.

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
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 12.04= 14.04= 14.10= 15.04
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.1= 8.0
Cups FiltersApplication
Affected:<= 1.0.70

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. Verify cups-filters package is installed
    On Debian/Ubuntu systems, run: dpkg -l | grep cups-filters or rpm -qa | grep cups-filters
    Affected if The cups-filters package is not installed on the system
  2. Determine installed cups-filters version
    Run: dpkg -l cups-filters (Debian/Ubuntu) or rpm -q cups-filters to see the installed version number
    Affected if The installed version is 1.0.70 or lower (any version up to and including 1.0.70)
  3. Confirm texttopdf filter exists
    Check for the texttopdf binary in CUPS filter directories, typically /usr/lib/cups/filter/texttopdf or /usr/libexec/cups/filter/texttopdf
    Affected if The texttopdf filter binary is present and executable in the CUPS filter path

A system is affected if it has cups-filters version 1.0.70 or lower installed with the texttopdf filter available, as the vulnerability lies in the WriteProlog function of filter/texttopdf.c when processing print jobs with small line sizes.

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 a release after 1.0.70
Interim mitigation

Upgrade cups-filters to version 1.0.70 or later to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider restricting or validating print job inputs at the print spooler level.

Fix this in Ubuntu Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,720
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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-2015-3258 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