CVE-2023-39275: Critical Integer Overflow Vulnerabilities in GTKWave 3.3.115

Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifier CVE-2023-39275 is a serious security vulnerability affecting GTKWave 3.3.115. This vulnerability specifically concerns the LXT2 facgeometry parsing functionality within the software. Multiple integer overflow vulnerabilities exist within this functionality, and they have the potential to lead to arbitrary code execution. This risk is of significant concern to system administrators and end-users, as any successful exploitation could result in system compromise or data leakage.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2023-39275
Severity: High (7.8)
Attack Vector: File-based, via a specially crafted .lxt2 file
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required (Victim needs to open a malicious file)
Impact: Arbitrary code execution, potential system compromise, or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

GTKWave | 3.3.115

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of integer overflow vulnerabilities within the LXT2 facgeometry parsing functionality of GTKWave. An attacker crafts a malicious .lxt2 file to trigger these vulnerabilities. When a victim opens this file, the software attempts to allocate the `value` array based on the crafted inputs. However, due to the integer overflow, the software ends up allocating less memory than required. This discrepancy can lead to a buffer overflow, where data spills over to adjacent memory locations, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.

Conceptual Example Code

The following pseudocode demonstrates a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited.

// Pseudocode for a crafted .lxt2 file
// Arbitrary values that would cause an integer overflow when multiplied
int malicious_value1 = INT_MAX;
int malicious_value2 = 2;
// The malicious .lxt2 file would contain such values that when the software
// tries to allocate memory for the `value` array, an integer overflow occurs
value_array_size = malicious_value1 * malicious_value2; // Causes integer overflow
value_array = new int[value_array_size]; // Allocates less memory than required
// The following data would then overflow to adjacent memory regions
for (int i=0; i<malicious_value1*malicious_value2; i++) {
value_array[i] = crafted_data[i];
}
// Resulting in arbitrary code execution
execute(value_array);

Users are strongly advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as it’s available or use WAF/IDS as a temporary mitigation measure against potential exploit attempts.