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CatdocApplication · Fossies

CVE-2023-41633

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-09-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Catdoc v0.95 was discovered to contain a NULL pointer dereference via the component xls2csv at src/fileutil.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 · moderate confidence

Catdoc v0.95 contains a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the xls2csv component within src/fileutil.c. When processing specially crafted input files, the application attempts to dereference a NULL pointer, causing a crash and resulting in denial of service.

MitigationApply vendor patches if available; otherwise, implement input validation and error handling in the xls2csv component to properly check for NULL pointers before dereferencing, or run Catdoc in a sandboxed environment to limit crash 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
CatdocApplication
Affected:= 0.95

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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. Verify Catdoc installation
    Run 'which catdoc' or check your system's package manager for the catdoc package
    Affected if catdoc is not found on the system - you are not affected
  2. Check Catdoc version
    Run 'catdoc --version' to display the installed version number
    Affected if version displayed is 0.95 - you are affected
  3. Verify xls2csv component presence
    Run 'which xls2csv' or check for the xls2csv binary in the catdoc installation directory
    Affected if xls2csv exists and is executable on the system

You are affected if Catdoc version 0.95 is installed and the xls2csv component is present on the system.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor patches if available; otherwise, implement input validation and error handling in the xls2csv component to properly check for NULL pointers before dereferencing, or run Catdoc in a sandboxed environment to limit crash impact.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

catdoc version 0.96 or later (check official releases for latest stable version)

  1. 1. Check the current installed version of catdoc: catdoc --version
  2. 2. Identify the latest stable release of catdoc from the official repository or releases page (e.g., GitHub releases)
  3. 3. Download the latest stable catdoc release (version 0.96 or later)
  4. 4. Compile and install the new version following the standard build process: ./configure && make && make install
  5. 5. Verify the installation and confirm the version: catdoc --version
  6. 6. Test the xls2csv functionality with previously problematic files to confirm the NULL pointer dereference is resolved
Caveat Minimal risk - this is a bug fix release; verify any custom scripts work with the new version

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

Fix this in Catdoc Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
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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-2023-41633 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