What is CVE-2013-6490?

CVE-2013-6490 is a vulnerability in Pidgin, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. Published 2014-02-06.

Is CVE-2013-6490 known to be exploited?

3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Buffer overflow in Pidgin

CVE-2013-6490

The SIMPLE protocol functionality in Pidgin before 2.10.8 allows remote attackers to have an unspecified impact via a negative Content-Length header, which triggers a buffer overflow.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2014-02-06 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 10.0 (High). Vector: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.148 (96.6th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 97th percentile — 96.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.148 · newest: 0.148 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Pidgin — versions 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-0139.html (vendor-advisory)
www.debian.org/security/2014/dsa-2859 (vendor-advisory)
www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2100-1 (vendor-advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/65195 (vdb-entry)
www.pidgin.im/news/security/ (Vendor Advisory)
hg.pidgin.im/pidgin/main/rev/6bd2dd10e5da

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2013-6490?: CVE-2013-6490 is a vulnerability in Pidgin, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. Published 2014-02-06.
Is CVE-2013-6490 known to be exploited?: 3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.