Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2005-3120

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

Published2005-10-17
WeaknessCWE-131

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Stack-based buffer overflow in the HTrjis function in Lynx 2.8.6 and earlier allows remote NNTP servers to execute arbitrary code via certain article headers containing Asian characters that cause Lynx to add extra escape (ESC) characters.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2005-10-1720:06CVE publishedNVD
2026-10-2319:23EPSS crossed 10 %FIRST EPSS

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 UTC

Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days

Block these indicators

Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2005-3120?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2005-3120?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Debian debian linux

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
3.0	= 3.0	no fix published	NVD
3.1	= 3.1	no fix published	NVD

Invisible-island lynx

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
2.8	≤ 2.8.6	no fix published	NVD

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

lists.grok.org.ukPatch · Vendor Advisory
www.redhat.comVendor Advisory

Detection

read 2026-10-23 19:23 UTC

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: EDB-1256
Proof-of-concept repositories: none listed

Sources

NVDCVSS 3.19.8read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.07.5read 2026-10-23
NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-131read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score23.3 %read 2026-10-23
Exploit-DBdetectionread 2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2005-10-17
Last Modified: 2026-06-16
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2005-3120?

Is CVE-2005-3120 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2005-3120 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 23.3% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2005-3120?

CVE-2005-3120 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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