Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2017-10965

Critical · 9.8

CVSS

9.8

EPSS

3.4%

Published

Jul 7, 2017

CISA due date

—

Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

A flaw in chat software could let attackers crash the program or gain control by sending messages with bad time information.

Exploitation
Remote Unauthenticated
Attacker needs
None
Complexity
Low
Impact
Denial Of Service
Component
Application
Class
Memory Corruption
Remediation
Upgrade
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

NULL pointer dereference triggered during processing of messages that contain invalid timestamps, resulting in crashes or potential memory corruption.

Why it matters to the business

Remote attackers can cause denial of service or attempt code execution on affected systems, leading to application downtime and security exposure across widely deployed Python runtime packages.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker crafts and sends network messages containing invalid timestamps to a vulnerable client; the application attempts to dereference a NULL pointer while handling the malformed timestamp data, resulting in a crash or exploitable memory state.

How to fix it

Upgrade all affected packages to the fixed versions: python-3.10 (Chainguard) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10 (Wolfi) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-base (Chainguard) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-base (Wolfi) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-base-dev (Chainguard) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-base-dev (Wolfi) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-dev (Chainguard) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-dev (Wolfi) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-doc (Chainguard) 3.10.14-r0, python-3.10-doc (Wolfi) 3.10.14-r0.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm package versions match or exceed the listed fixed releases and test message handling with invalid timestamps to verify absence of NULL dereference behavior.

Typical attack path

  1. Identify exposed instances of the vulnerable software
  2. Send crafted messages containing invalid timestamps
  3. Trigger NULL pointer dereference in timestamp handling logic
  4. Cause application crash or attempt further memory corruption exploitation

How to detect it

Review application crash logs and memory dumps for NULL dereference faults occurring during timestamp parsing of incoming messages; correlate with network traffic containing malformed timestamp fields.

What your security team should do

  • Immediately upgrade all listed Python packages to the specified fixed versions
  • Prioritize patching due to high CVSS score despite age of disclosure
  • Monitor for any downstream dependents that may inherit the vulnerable packages
  • Review logging for unexpected application crashes related to message timestamp processing

The record

An issue was discovered in Irssi before 1.0.4. When receiving messages with invalid time stamps, Irssi would try to dereference a NULL pointer.

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed
Alpine:v3.10 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.11 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.12 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.13 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.14 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.15 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.16 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.17 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.3 irssi 0 0.8.21.r2
Alpine:v3.4 irssi 0 0.8.21.r2
Alpine:v3.5 irssi 0 0.8.21.r2
Alpine:v3.6 irssi 0 1.0.4.-r0
Alpine:v3.7 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.8 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Alpine:v3.9 irssi 0 1.0.4-r0
Debian:10 irssi 0 1.0.4-1
Debian:11 irssi 0 1.0.4-1
Debian:12 irssi 0 1.0.4-1
Debian:13 irssi 0 1.0.4-1
Debian:7 irssi 0 0.8.15-5+deb7u3
Mageia:5 irssi 0 0.8.21-1.2.mga5
Mageia:6 irssi 0 1.0.4-1.mga6
SUSE:Package Hub 12 irssi 0 1.0.4-28.1
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS irssi 0 0.8.15-5ubuntu3.3
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS irssi 0 0.8.19-1ubuntu1.5
openSUSE:Tumbleweed irssi 0 1.2.3-2.4

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