CVE-2023-35960: OS Command Injection Vulnerabilities in GTKWave’s Decompression Functionality

Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a critical vulnerability in the GTKWave version 3.3.115, which is an open-source waveform viewer. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2023-35960, predominantly affects the decompression functionality of the software, allowing malicious actors to execute arbitrary commands on the victim’s system.
This vulnerability is of significant concern as it potentially compromises the integrity of the user’s system and could lead to data leakage. As a part of the open-source community, GTKWave is widely used in various industries, making this particular vulnerability a serious cybersecurity issue that needs immediate attention.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2023-35960
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS score)
Attack Vector: Local file
Privileges Required: User-level
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Arbitrary command execution leading to potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

GTKWave | 3.3.115

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of multiple OS command injection vulnerabilities in the decompression functionality of GTKWave. By crafting a malicious wave file, an attacker can inject arbitrary commands into the decompression process. When a victim opens the malicious file, the injected commands are executed, leading to potential system compromise or data leakage.

Conceptual Example Code

The following pseudocode represents a conceptual example of how the vulnerability could be exploited:

# Create malicious wave file
echo "command_injection_payload" > malicious.wave
# Use GTKWave to open the malicious file, triggering the exploit
gtkwave malicious.wave

In this example, `command_injection_payload` represents a malicious command that an attacker wants to execute on the victim’s system. When the victim opens `malicious.wave` using GTKWave, the malicious command is executed.

Mitigation

To mitigate the potential risk of this vulnerability, users are advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available. As a temporary measure, users can employ a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to prevent the execution of potentially malicious commands. Users are also strongly advised to be cautious when opening wave files from untrusted sources.