dbcve.org
CflowApplication · Gnu

CVE-2019-16165

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-09-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.6 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
GNU cflow through 1.6 has a use-after-free in the reference function in parser.c.

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

GNU cflow through version 1.6 contains a use-after-free vulnerability in the reference function in parser.c. This memory safety flaw occurs when the program attempts to access memory that has already been freed, potentially allowing an attacker to manipulate program behavior through specially crafted input files.

MitigationUpgrade GNU cflow to a version beyond 1.6 that addresses this vulnerability. As a defensive measure, validate and sanitize input files before processing, and run cflow in sandboxed environments to limit potential impact.

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
CflowApplication
Affected:<= 1.6

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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. Check installed GNU cflow version
    Run 'cflow --version' or 'cflow -V' to determine the installed version
    Affected if The version displayed is 1.6 or any version lower than 1.6 (e.g., 1.5, 1.4, etc.)
  2. Verify the binary location
    Run 'which cflow' to locate the cflow binary and confirm it is the GNU cflow implementation
    Affected if The binary is GNU cflow and the version is <= 1.6
  3. Check for untrusted input file processing
    Review your workflows to determine if cflow processes input files from untrusted or external sources
    Affected if You process input files from untrusted sources using a version <= 1.6 of cflow

You are affected if GNU cflow version 1.6 or earlier is installed and it processes input files, since the use-after-free in parser.c can be triggered by specially crafted input.

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 1.6
Interim mitigation

Upgrade GNU cflow to a version beyond 1.6 that addresses this vulnerability. As a defensive measure, validate and sanitize input files before processing, and run cflow in sandboxed environments to limit potential impact.

Fix this in Cflow Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-16165 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2019-16165 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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