{"id":35641,"date":"2025-05-06T13:23:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T13:23:26","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-05-12T00:19:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T00:19:25","slug":"cve-2023-35996-arbitrary-code-execution-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-35996-arbitrary-code-execution-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2023-35996: Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability in GTKWave 3.3.115<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The cybersecurity world is facing yet another challenge with the discovery of a new vulnerability that affects the popular waveform viewer, GTKWave. Codenamed CVE-2023-35996, this vulnerability exploits weaknesses in the array index validation of the software, specifically in its fstReaderIterBlocks2 tdelta functionality. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43946-critical-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-tcpwave-ddi\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"40331\">vulnerability has the potential to permit arbitrary code execution<\/a>, which poses a significant threat to system security and data integrity.<br \/>\nAffected users and organizations need to be aware of the implications of this vulnerability. It allows an attacker to manipulate the execution of an application, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3928-unspecified-vulnerability-in-commvault-web-server-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"40366\">potentially leading to system<\/a> compromise and data leakage. As such, understanding its intricacies and mitigating its risks are paramount.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2023-35996<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8 CVSS v3 Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: File<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3914-potential-arbitrary-file-uploads-and-system-compromise-in-aeropage-sync-for-airtable-wordpress-plugin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"40578\">System compromise<\/a>, potential data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1430981029\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>GTKWave | 3.3.115<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The exploit takes advantage of improper array index validation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-34436-critical-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41036\">vulnerabilities within the fstReaderIterBlocks2 tdelta functionality of GTKWave<\/a>. By crafting a malicious .fst file, an attacker can manipulate the indexing process, especially when signal_lens is set to 0.<br \/>\nThis manipulation can lead to out of bounds write, allowing the attacker to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-13808-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-xpro-elementor-addons-pro-wordpress-plugin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"40356\">execute arbitrary code<\/a> on the victim&#8217;s system. However, this requires the victim to open the malicious .fst file, meaning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-1950-local-user-command-execution-vulnerability-in-ibm-hardware-management-console\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"40526\">user interaction is a key component in the successful execution<\/a> of this exploit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-973400467\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a conceptual example of a malformed .fst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-2101-local-file-inclusion-vulnerability-in-edumall-wordpress-theme\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"40701\">file that could potentially exploit this vulnerability<\/a>. Note that this is a simplified representation and actual exploit code may differ:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Create a malicious .fst file\nwith open(&#039;malicious.fst&#039;, &#039;w&#039;) as file:\nfile.write(&#039;header info...&#039;)\n# Generate malicious content that leads to out of bounds write\nfile.write(&#039;malicious content...&#039;)\nfile.write(&#039;footer info...&#039;)<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>The above conceptual code creates a .fst file with malicious content designed to exploit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-35994-critical-array-index-validation-vulnerabilities-in-gtkwave\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41986\">array index validation vulnerability<\/a>. When this file is opened in GTKWave 3.3.115, it could potentially lead to arbitrary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-32432-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-craft-cms\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"40497\">code execution<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The cybersecurity world is facing yet another challenge with the discovery of a new vulnerability that affects the popular waveform viewer, GTKWave. Codenamed CVE-2023-35996, this vulnerability exploits weaknesses in the array index validation of the software, specifically in its fstReaderIterBlocks2 tdelta functionality. This vulnerability has the potential to permit arbitrary code execution, which poses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[80],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-35641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-rce"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35641"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37311,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35641\/revisions\/37311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35641"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=35641"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=35641"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=35641"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=35641"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=35641"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=35641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}