CVE-2019-15548
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in the ncurses crate through 5.99.0 for Rust. There are instr and mvwinstr buffer overflows because interaction with C functions is mishandled.
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 confidenceThe ncurses Rust crate (versions up to 5.99.0) has buffer overflow vulnerabilities in the instr and mvwinstr functions due to improper handling of FFI boundaries with the underlying C ncurses library. The Rust bindings fail to properly enforce buffer size limits when calling C functions, allowing out-of-bounds memory writes.
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<= 5.99.0CVSS 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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 ncurses crate dependencySearch your project's Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock files for 'ncurses' under [dependencies] and note the version number specifiedAffected if The version listed is 5.99.0 or lower, or no version is pinned and the resolved version in Cargo.lock is 5.99.0 or lower
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Locate usage of vulnerable functionsSearch your Rust source code for calls to 'instr' and 'mvwinstr' methods from the ncurses crate (for example: ncurses::instr(...) or similar patterns)Affected if Code calls either the instr or mvwinstr function from the ncurses crate without explicit buffer size parameters
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Verify buffer handling at FFI boundaryReview the code paths that use instr/mvwinstr to determine if user-supplied or unbounded data is passed to these functions without first allocating a properly sized bufferAffected if The functions process input without pre-allocated buffers of known size, allowing the Rust crate to pass unbounded lengths to the underlying C library
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Check runtime ncurses binding versionAt runtime, if possible, inspect the ncurses crate version programmatically via Cargo or by reviewing the compiled dependency metadataAffected if The runtime dependency resolves to ncurses crate version 5.99.0 or earlier
You are affected if your project depends on the ncurses Rust crate at version 5.99.0 or lower and your code calls the instr or mvwinstr functions without explicit buffer size management.
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.
dbcve · scopedUpdate to a patched version of the ncurses crate that properly handles buffer sizes at the Rust/C FFI boundary. If no patched version is available, avoid using instr and mvwinstr functions or implement input validation wrappers.
ncurses crate version 6.0.0 or later
- 1. Identify all dependencies that depend on the ncurses crate in your project by running: cargo tree -p ncurses or checking your Cargo.lock file
- 2. Run cargo outdated or cargo audit to identify the current ncurses version in use
- 3. Update the ncurses dependency in your Cargo.toml to a version greater than 5.99.0 (version 6.0.0 or later)
- 4. Run cargo update to update the lockfile
- 5. Rebuild and test your application to ensure compatibility with the new version
- 6. Re-run cargo audit or cargo tree to confirm the vulnerable version is no longer present
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-15548 — 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-2019-15548 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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