What is CVE-2017-17440?

CVE-2017-17440 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Libextractor, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2017-12-06.

How severe is CVE-2017-17440?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2017-17440 known to be exploited?

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

NULL pointer dereference in GNU Libextractor

CVE-2017-17440

GNU Libextractor 1.6 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and application crash) via a crafted GIF, IT (Impulse Tracker), NSFE, S3M (Scream Tracker 3), SID, or XM (eXtended Module) file, as demonstrated by the EXTRACTOR_xm_extract_method function in plugins/xm_extractor.c.

Published 2017-12-06 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.024 (83.1th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 83rd percentile — 83.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.024 · newest: 0.024 · change: 0.000

Affected products

GNU Libextractor — versions 1.6

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-476 — NULL Pointer Dereference

Public proof-of-concept exploits

andir/nixos-issue-db-example

References

lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libextractor/2017-11/msg00005.html (Issue Tracking)
bugs.debian.org/883528 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libextractor/2017-11/msg00001.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libextractor/2017-11/msg00000.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/102116 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libextractor/2017-11/msg00002.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
gnunet.org/git/libextractor.git/commit/ (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libextractor/2017-11/msg00004.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-17440?: CVE-2017-17440 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Libextractor, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2017-12-06.
How severe is CVE-2017-17440?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2017-17440 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.