{"id":36335,"date":"2025-05-08T12:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T12:44:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-30T04:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T10:38:27","slug":"cve-2023-37419-critical-arbitrary-code-execution-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-37419-critical-arbitrary-code-execution-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2023-37419: Critical Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability in GTKWave 3.3.115<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this blog post, we are discussing a critical vulnerability, CVE-2023-37419, that affects the software GTKWave 3.3.115. This vulnerability is of particular concern because it can enable an attacker to execute arbitrary code, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-41646-critical-authentication-bypass-vulnerability-in-affected-software-packages\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"59290\">affected software<\/a>, GTKWave, is a waveform viewer that is widely used across many industries for debugging purposes. As such, a breach here could have far-reaching implications.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2023-37419<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: .vcd file<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: User level<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: Potential system compromise or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-50612-escalation-of-privileges-and-data-leakage-in-fit2cloud-cloud-explorer-lite\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41265\">data leakage<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-280123227\" 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: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\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: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\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: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-35004-critical-integer-overflow-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41053\">vulnerability lies in the VCD parse_valuechange portdump functionality of GTKWave<\/a> 3.3.115. Specifically, multiple <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=\"41032\">out-of-bounds write vulnerabilities<\/a> exist, which can lead to arbitrary code execution. These <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-44872-command-injection-vulnerability-in-tenda-ac9-v15-03-06-42-multi-via-the-formsetusbunload-function\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"42894\">vulnerabilities can be triggered via<\/a> a vcd2lxt2 conversion utility.<br \/>\nAn attacker can exploit this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43951-local-file-inclusion-vulnerability-in-labvantage-prior-to-lv-8-8-0-13-hf6\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41748\">vulnerability by crafting a malicious .vcd file<\/a>. When a victim opens this file, the vulnerabilities are triggered, potentially leading to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-21821-arbitrary-os-command-execution-vulnerability-in-multiple-tp-link-products\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41100\">execution of arbitrary<\/a> code with user privileges. This can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-24351-remote-logging-vulnerability-in-ctrlx-os-can-lead-to-root-level-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"42180\">lead to system<\/a> compromise or data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-596940162\" 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 is a conceptual example of how the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-47154-exploitation-of-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-libjs-in-ladybird\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"42895\">vulnerability might be exploited<\/a>. This is not actual exploit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49526-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-illustrator-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"75123\">code but is meant to illustrate<\/a> the general concept:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Create a malicious .vcd file\n$ echo &quot;malicious code&quot; &gt; malicious.vcd\n# Convert the .vcd file to .lxt2\n$ vcd2lxt2 malicious.vcd malicious.lxt2\n# Open the .lxt2 file in GTKWave\n$ gtkwave malicious.lxt2<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the &#8220;malicious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-20654-microsoft-odbc-driver-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-a-high-level-threat\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41327\">code&#8221;<\/a> would be replaced with actual harmful commands that are executed when the .lxt2 file is opened in GTKWave.<br \/>\nRemember always to apply vendor patches promptly and use WAF\/IDS as a temporary mitigation. This will reduce the risk of exploitation and help to secure your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-32974-critical-vulnerability-in-xwiki-s-rights-analysis-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"42262\">systems against potential<\/a> attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview In this blog post, we are discussing a critical vulnerability, CVE-2023-37419, that affects the software GTKWave 3.3.115. This vulnerability is of particular concern because it can enable an attacker to execute arbitrary code, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. The affected software, GTKWave, is a waveform viewer that is widely used across [&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":[86,80],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-36335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-buffer-overflow","attack_vector-rce"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36335","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=36335"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67732,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36335\/revisions\/67732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=36335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}