{"id":36859,"date":"2025-05-10T11:02:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T11:02:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-06-14T23:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T05:39:04","slug":"cve-2023-37573-multiple-use-after-free-vulnerabilities-in-gtkwave-3-3-115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-37573-multiple-use-after-free-vulnerabilities-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2023-37573: Multiple use-after-free vulnerabilities in GTKWave 3.3.115<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this blog post, we will examine the CVE-2023-37573 vulnerability, a serious security flaw that affects GTKWave 3.3.115. This vulnerability is significant due to its potential to lead to arbitrary code execution when a specially crafted .vcd file is opened. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-32444-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-vllm-integration-with-mooncake\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41881\">vulnerability is triggered by the GUI&#8217;s recoder VCD parsing code<\/a>, and it&#8217;s particularly concerning for users of this version of GTKWave as it could potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2023-37573<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: System compromise, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-49835-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-data-leakage-or-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"58418\">data leakage<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2514214307\" 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-2023-35959-command-injection-vulnerability-in-gtkwave-3-3-115\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41590\">vulnerability lies in the get_vartoken realloc function of GTKWave<\/a> 3.3.115. The function is responsible for reallocating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-45578-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-ioctls-during-ife-output-resource-id-validation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"58444\">memory resources<\/a> during the parsing of .vcd files. However, the function maintains a reference to a memory location even after it has been freed, leading to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-1290-high-severity-race-condition-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-kernel-5-4-on-chromeos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"41762\">use-after-free vulnerability<\/a>.<br \/>\nWhen a specially crafted .vcd file is opened, the function can be manipulated to reference this deallocated memory space. This manipulation can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-35995-gtkwave-array-index-validation-vulnerability-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"42013\">lead to arbitrary code<\/a> execution as the malicious code inserted in this space gets executed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4291419209\" 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 we don&#8217;t encourage or condone malicious activities, a conceptual example of this vulnerability might look something like this:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">#include&lt;stdio.h&gt;\n#include&lt;stdlib.h&gt;\nint main() {\n\/\/ Allocate memory\nchar *ptr = malloc(8);\n\/\/ Use memory\nstrcpy(ptr, &quot;GTKWave&quot;);\n\/\/ Free memory\nfree(ptr);\n\/\/ Here&#039;s where the use-after-free vulnerability is created.\n\/\/ We&#039;re using &#039;ptr&#039; after it has been freed.\nstrcpy(ptr, &quot;Malicious code&quot;);\nreturn 0;\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this conceptual example, the malicious code could be anything, from a payload that creates a backdoor to one that leaks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-48749-netwrix-directory-manager-s-sensitive-data-exposure-vulnerability\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"58419\">sensitive data<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most effective way to rectify this vulnerability is to apply the vendor patch once it becomes available. Until then, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can offer temporary mitigation. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46827-graylog-open-log-management-platform-user-session-cookie-exposure\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"58420\">Users are also advised to avoid opening<\/a> .vcd files from untrusted sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview In this blog post, we will examine the CVE-2023-37573 vulnerability, a serious security flaw that affects GTKWave 3.3.115. This vulnerability is significant due to its potential to lead to arbitrary code execution when a specially crafted .vcd file is opened. The vulnerability is triggered by the GUI&#8217;s recoder VCD parsing code, and it&#8217;s particularly [&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-36859","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\/36859","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=36859"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52166,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36859\/revisions\/52166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36859"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=36859"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=36859"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=36859"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=36859"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=36859"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=36859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}