Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2019-8375

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-02-24
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.23.90 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
The UIProcess subsystem in WebKit, as used in WebKitGTK through 2.23.90 and WebKitGTK+ through 2.22.6 and other products, does not prevent the script dialog size from exceeding the web view size, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (Buffer Overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact, related to UIProcess/API/gtk/WebKitScriptDialogGtk.cpp, UIProcess/API/gtk/WebKitScriptDialogImpl.cpp, and UIProcess/API/gtk/WebKitWebViewGtk.cpp, as demonstrated by GNOME Web (aka Epiphany).

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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:= 18.04= 18.10
WebkitgtkWeb browser
Affected:<= 2.23.90
Webkitgtk\+Web browser
Affected:<= 2.22.6
LeapOperating system
Affected:= 15.0= 42.3

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.23.90
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

WebKitGTK 2.23.91 or later / WebKitGTK+ 2.22.7 or later

  1. Identify the installed WebKitGTK or WebKitGTK+ version using: dpkg -l | grep webkit or rpm -qa | grep webkit
  2. For Ubuntu 18.04/18.10: Run 'sudo apt update' then 'sudo apt upgrade' to install patched webkit2gtk packages
  3. For openSUSE Leap 15.0/42.3: Run 'sudo zypper patch' or 'sudo zypper update webkit2gtk1' to apply security patches
  4. After upgrading, restart any running instances of GNOME Web (Epiphany) or other applications using WebKitGTK
  5. Verify the new version is installed: dpkg -l | grep webkit2gtk (Ubuntu) or rpm -qa | grep webkit2gtk (openSUSE)
Caveat Minimal risk - point release upgrade containing security fixes; may require restarting applications using WebKit

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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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-2019-8375 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