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GlibcFramework / library · Gnu

CVE-2023-0687

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-02-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.38 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
A vulnerability was found in GNU C Library 2.38. It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects the function __monstartup of the file gmon.c of the component Call Graph Monitor. The manipulation leads to buffer overflow. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue. VDB-220246 is the identifier assigned to this vulnerability. NOTE: The real existence of this vulnerability is still doubted at the moment. The inputs that induce this vulnerability are basically addresses of the running application that is built with gmon enabled. It's basically trusted input or input that needs an actual security flaw to be compromised or controlled.

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-120

A fixed-size buffer is filled without checking the length of the incoming data, so it overflows into neighbouring memory. This is the classic overflow attackers use to overwrite return addresses and hijack execution. The fix is strict length checks and safe, bounded string and memory functions.

General guidance for the classic buffer overflow 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
GlibcFramework / library
Affected:< 2.38

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:3.1/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 2.38 or later
Fixed in 2.38
Vendor patch patchwork.sourceware.org →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

glibc 2.38 or later (current stable is 2.39 as of 2024)

  1. 1. Identify the current glibc version installed on your system using: `ldd --version` or `rpm -q glibc` / `dpkg -l | grep libc6`
  2. 2. Check if your Linux distribution has glibc 2.38 or newer available in their repositories
  3. 3. For systems with custom builds, obtain glibc 2.38 or later from https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/ or clone from https://sourceware.org/git/glibc.git and checkout tag `glibc-2.38` or later
  4. 4. Before upgrading glibc, ensure all dependent applications are compatible with the newer version
  5. 5. Apply the upgrade via your system package manager (e.g., `apt-get upgrade`, `yum update`, or compile from source with `./configure && make && make install`)
  6. 6. After upgrade, reboot the system to ensure the new glibc is loaded
  7. 7. Verify the new version is active using `ldd --version`
Caveat Major glibc upgrades can break ABI compatibility with older compiled binaries; test in staging environment before production deployment

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,550. Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-0687 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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