Buffer overflow in Tats W3m

CVE-2023-4255

An out-of-bounds write issue has been discovered in the backspace handling of the checkType() function in etc.c within the W3M application. This vulnerability is triggered by supplying a specially crafted HTML file to the w3m binary. Exploitation of this flaw could lead to application crashes, resulting in a denial of service condition.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (23.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 24th percentile — 23.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2023-4255: held from 0.003 to 0.003.

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

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-4255?
CVE-2023-4255 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Tats W3m, classified under Out-of-bounds Write. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2023-12-21.
How severe is CVE-2023-4255?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2023-4255 known to be exploited?
4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.