What is CVE-2017-15601?

CVE-2017-15601 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Libextractor, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2017-10-18.

How severe is CVE-2017-15601?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in GNU Libextractor

CVE-2017-15601

In GNU Libextractor 1.4, there is a heap-based buffer overflow in the EXTRACTOR_png_extract_method function in plugins/png_extractor.c, related to processiTXt and stndup.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2017-10-18 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.016 (75.4th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 75th percentile — 75.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.016 · newest: 0.016 · change: +0.000

Affected products

GNU Libextractor — versions 1.4

Weakness classification (CWE)

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

References

ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libextractor/libextractor-1.6.tar.gz (Product)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2017/12/msg00000.html (mailing-list)
lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libextractor/2017-10/msg00006.html (Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-15601?: CVE-2017-15601 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Libextractor, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2017-10-18.
How severe is CVE-2017-15601?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.