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AutotraceApplication · Autotrace Project

CVE-2017-9156

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-05-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
libautotrace.a in AutoTrace 0.31.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (invalid write and SEGV), related to the pnm_load_ascii function in input-pnm.c:303:12.

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

A denial of service vulnerability exists in libautotrace.a (AutoTrace 0.31.1) where the pnm_load_ascii function in input-pnm.c mishandles parsing of ASCII-format PNM (portable anymap) image files, leading to an invalid memory write and subsequent segmentation fault when processing crafted input.

MitigationUpdate to a patched version of AutoTrace if available; otherwise, avoid processing untrusted PNM files with autotrace or ensure the library is not used to parse externally-sourced image data.

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
AutotraceApplication
Affected:= 0.31.1

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 checks

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

  1. Verify AutoTrace is installed
    Run 'which autotrace' or 'autotrace --version' to confirm the tool is present on the system
    Affected if AutoTrace is not installed - not affected
  2. Confirm installed version is 0.31.1
    Run 'autotrace --version' and verify the output shows exactly version 0.31.1
    Affected if Version is anything other than 0.31.1 - not affected
  3. Locate the vulnerable library
    Check for the presence of libautotrace.a using 'find / -name libautotrace.a 2>/dev/null' or check the installation directory
    Affected if libautotrace.a is not present - not affected
  4. Identify PNM file processing usage
    Review any scripts, applications, or workflows that invoke autotrace to process image files; check if PNM/PNM/ASCII-format PNM files are being processed
    Affected if AutoTrace is not used to process PNM files - not affected

A user is affected only if AutoTrace version 0.31.1 is installed AND the libautotrace.a library is present AND the tool is being used to process ASCII-format PNM image files.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update to a patched version of AutoTrace if available; otherwise, avoid processing untrusted PNM files with autotrace or ensure the library is not used to parse externally-sourced image data.

Fix this in Autotrace Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2017-9156 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