CVE-2023-35057: Critical Integer Overflow Vulnerability in GTKWave 3.3.115

Overview

The recent discovery of a critical vulnerability, tagged as CVE-2023-35057, in the LXT2 lxt2_rd_trace value elements allocation functionality of GTKWave 3.3.115, a popular waveform viewer for VLSI debugging, has sparked concerns among cybersecurity professionals. This vulnerability, characterized by an integer overflow, could potentially lead to memory corruption, posing a significant threat to system integrity and data security. Any unsuspecting user opening a maliciously crafted .lxt2 file could inadvertently trigger this vulnerability, thereby compromising their system or causing data leakage.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2023-35057
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS)
Attack Vector: .lxt2 file
Privileges Required: User level
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Memory corruption leading to potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

GTKWave | 3.3.115

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability stems from an integer overflow in the LXT2 lxt2_rd_trace value elements allocation functionality of GTKWave 3.3.115. This overflow occurs when a specially crafted .lxt2 file is opened by the user, which leads to an overflow condition that subsequently results in memory corruption. As a result, an attacker could potentially leverage this memory corruption to execute arbitrary code, compromise the affected system, or even leak sensitive data.

Conceptual Example Code

While the specific code to exploit this vulnerability is not provided to prevent misuse, a conceptual understanding of the exploit can be summarized as follows:

# Construct a malicious .lxt2 file with oversized data that would trigger integer overflow
echo -n "malicious data" > exploit.lxt2
# Use this file to exploit the vulnerability
GTKWave exploit.lxt2

The above pseudocode represents a scenario where an oversized .lxt2 file is created and opened in GTKWave, which would trigger the integer overflow, resulting in memory corruption.

Mitigation Guidance

Users are advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as it is available to fix this vulnerability. In the meantime, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure. It’s crucial to stay vigilant and cautious when opening .lxt2 files, especially from untrusted sources, to avoid falling victim to this exploit.