CVE-2017-13738
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 · uneditedThere is an illegal address access in the _lou_getALine function in compileTranslationTable.c:346 in Liblouis 3.2.0.
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 · moderate confidenceAn illegal address access vulnerability exists in the _lou_getALine function in compileTranslationTable.c at line 346 in Liblouis 3.2.0. This is a memory corruption issue occurring during the compilation of braille translation tables, where the function accesses an invalid memory address, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution or denial of service.
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= 3.2.0CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 Liblouis versionRun 'louis --version' or check the library version through your system's package manager (dpkg -r, rpm -qi, or similar depending on your OS)Affected if The installed version is exactly 3.2.0
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Locate the compileTranslationTable.c fileSearch for liblouis source code in your environment: find / -name 'compileTranslationTable.c' 2>/dev/null, or check if liblouis was compiled from source in a local directoryAffected if The file exists and was built from the vulnerable 3.2.0 source
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Confirm braille table compilation feature is in useCheck if your application or tool uses liblouis to compile braille translation tables. Look for configuration files, logs, or processes that invoke liblouis transcomp, or examine any custom braille table definitions being processedAffected if Braille translation table compilation is performed using the vulnerable liblouis library
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Inspect the _lou_getALine function codeIf you have access to the source, examine compileTranslationTable.c around line 346 to verify the vulnerable code pattern (illegal address access) is present in your buildAffected if The vulnerable code pattern exists without bounds checking fixes
You are affected only if your installed Liblouis version is exactly 3.2.0 AND you use the braille translation table compilation feature that triggers the _lou_getALine function.
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 dataUpgrade to a patched version of Liblouis that addresses the bounds checking issue in the _lou_getALine function, or apply the vendor-provided patch to fix the illegal memory access in compileTranslationTable.c.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-13738 — 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-2017-13738 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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