{"id":36336,"date":"2025-05-08T13:44:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T13:44:39","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-08T17:18:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:18:57","slug":"cve-2023-37420-critical-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-s-vcd-parse-valuechange-portdump-functionality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-37420-critical-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-s-vcd-parse-valuechange-portdump-functionality\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2023-37420: Critical Out-of-Bounds Write Vulnerability in GTKWave&#8217;s VCD Parse_ValueChange Portdump Functionality<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The cybersecurity landscape is riddled with vulnerabilities that can wreak havoc on systems, compromise data, and disrupt operations. One such critical vulnerability has recently come to light, affecting the GTKWave software, specifically version 3.3.115. GTKWave is widely utilized for viewing waveform data produced by digital logic simulators, and the <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=\"42261\">vulnerability identified has the potential<\/a> to impact a broad range of users.<br \/>\nThe CVE-2023-37420 vulnerability is of particular concern as it allows for arbitrary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3641-remote-code-execution-risk-in-moodle-lms-dropbox-repository\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41454\">code execution<\/a>, providing an attacker with the potential to compromise a system, steal sensitive data, or disrupt operations. The implications of this vulnerability are vast, affecting individual users, organizations, and potentially even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-35004-critical-integer-overflow-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41061\">critical infrastructure that relies on GTKWave<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2023-37420<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8 CVSS score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: <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=\"41747\">Local File<\/a><br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: Potential system compromise and <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=\"41264\">data leakage<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2998895692\" 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 vulnerability stems from multiple out-of-bounds <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=\"41030\">write vulnerabilities that exist within the VCD parse_valuechange portdump<\/a> functionality of GTKWave. The vulnerability can be triggered by a specially crafted .vcd file which, when opened, can potentially lead to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-21821-arbitrary-os-command-execution-vulnerability-in-multiple-tp-link-products\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41107\">arbitrary code execution<\/a>. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-24274-input-validation-issue-exploitable-via-malicious-app-on-macos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"64192\">exploit is specifically triggered via<\/a> the vcd2lxt conversion utility.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1781205467\" 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>While the exact nature of the exploit code is withheld to prevent misuse, the general concept involves crafting a .vcd file with specific malicious payloads that trigger the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-36861-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"42454\">out-of-bounds write when the file is opened in GTKWave<\/a>. The example below is a simplified representation and does not represent actual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8714-critical-postgresql-vulnerability-allowing-malicious-code-injection-by-superusers\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80709\">malicious code<\/a>:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">#Conceptual example of a malicious .vcd file\nheader = &quot;...&quot;\nmalicious_payload = &quot;...&quot; #Out-of-bounds write triggering payload\nfooter = &quot;...&quot;\nwith open(&quot;malicious.vcd&quot;, &quot;w&quot;) as f:\nf.write(header + malicious_payload + footer)<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This file, when opened in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-35057-critical-integer-overflow-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41068\">vulnerable version of GTKWave<\/a>, would trigger the vulnerability, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To mitigate the potential <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-47154-exploitation-of-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-libjs-in-ladybird\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"42455\">exploitation of this vulnerability<\/a>, users are advised to apply the vendor-supplied patch as soon as it becomes available. In the interim, the use of Web Application Firewalls (WAF) and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure by identifying and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-35989-integer-overflow-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-s-lxt2-zlib-block-allocation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41938\">blocking attempts to exploit this vulnerability<\/a>. It&#8217;s also recommended to avoid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2021-41691-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-os4ed-open-source-information-system-community\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"64191\">opening .vcd files from untrusted sources<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The cybersecurity landscape is riddled with vulnerabilities that can wreak havoc on systems, compromise data, and disrupt operations. One such critical vulnerability has recently come to light, affecting the GTKWave software, specifically version 3.3.115. GTKWave is widely utilized for viewing waveform data produced by digital logic simulators, and the vulnerability identified has the potential [&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-36336","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\/36336","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=36336"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73132,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36336\/revisions\/73132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=36336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}