What is CVE-2023-31979?

CVE-2023-31979 is a high-severity vulnerability in Fossies Catdoc, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2023-05-09.

How severe is CVE-2023-31979?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Fossies Catdoc

CVE-2023-31979

Catdoc v0.95 was discovered to contain a global buffer overflow via the function process_file at /src/reader.c.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2023-05-09 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (18.1th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 18th percentile — 18.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.003 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Fossies Catdoc — versions 0.95

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-120 — Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow)

References

github.com/petewarden/catdoc/issues/9 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-31979?: CVE-2023-31979 is a high-severity vulnerability in Fossies Catdoc, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2023-05-09.
How severe is CVE-2023-31979?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.